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Hilary Hahn

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Hilary Hahn
Background information
Born (1979-11-27) November 27, 1979 (age 45)
Lexington, Virginia, US
GenresClassical
OccupationViolinist
Instrument1864 J.B. Vuillaume (Il Cannone Guarneri reproduction)
Websitewww.hilaryhahn.com

Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979) is an American violinist. In her career, she has performed throughout the world both as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors and as a recitalist. She also built a reputation as a champion of contemporary music. Several composers have written works especially for her, including concerti by Edgar Meyer and Jennifer Higdon and partitas by Antón García Abril.

Early life and education

Hahn was born in Lexington, Virginia on November 27, 1979.[1] She began playing the violin one month before her fourth birthday in the Suzuki Program of Baltimore's Peabody Institute. She participated in a Suzuki class for a year. Between 1985 and early 1990 Hahn studied in Baltimore under Klara Berkovich.[2] In 1990, at ten, Hahn was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she became a student of Jascha Brodsky. Hahn studied with Brodsky for seven years and learned the études of Kreutzer, Ševčík, Gaviniès, Rode, and the Paganini Caprices. She learned twenty-eight violin concertos, as well as recital programs, chamber works, and assorted showpieces.[3]

In 1991, at the age of eleven, Hahn made her major orchestral debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.[4] Soon thereafter, Hahn debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra,[5] Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic.[5] Hahn made her international debut in 1994 performing the Bernstein Serenade in Hungary with Ivan Fisher and the Budapest Festival Orchestra. Her German debut came in 1995 with a performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.[6] The concert was broadcast in Europe. A year later, Hahn debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York City as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.[5] In a 1999 interview with Strings Magazine, Hahn cited people influential to her development as a musician and a student, including David Zinman, the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony and Hahn's mentor since she was ten, and Lorin Maazel, with whose Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra she performed in Europe.[7]

By sixteen, Hahn had completed the Curtis Institute's university requirements, but elected to remain for several years to pursue elective courses, until her graduation in May 1999 with a Bachelor of Music degree.[3] During this time she coached violin with Jaime Laredo,[8] and studied chamber music with Felix Galimir and Gary Graffman.[1] She appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, in February 2000, discussing her early experiences with the violin and performing a solo and a duet.[9] In a December 2001 interview on PBS, Hahn stated that of all musical disciplines, she is most interested in performance.[10]

Musical career

Hahn began recording in 1996.[11] Her earlier television appearances include Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood in 2000 (episode 1755), where Mr. Rogers visits a local music store and she plays for him. She has released 16 albums on the Deutsche Grammophon and Sony labels, in addition to three DVDs, an Oscar-nominated movie soundtrack, an award-winning recording for children, and various compilations. Her recordings are often marked by a blending of newer and traditional pieces.[12] Her albums include pairings of Beethoven with Leonard Bernstein, Schoenberg with Sibelius, Brahms with Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky with Jennifer Higdon.[13][14][15][16]

Hahn has played with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra,[17] New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra, and Singapore Symphony Orchestra. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in March 2007, and played in Vatican City as part of the celebrations for Pope Benedict XVI together with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gustavo Dudamel, also in 2007.[18][19] The concert was recorded and released by Deutsche Grammophon.[20]

In addition to being a solo violinist, Hahn has also performed as a chamber musician. Since the summer of 1992 she has performed nearly every year with the Skaneateles Chamber Music Festival in Skaneateles, New York.[21] Between 1995 and 2000 she performed and studied chamber music at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont,[22] and in 1996 she served as an artist and a member of the chamber music mentoring program of The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.[3] In 2004, she toured Saint Petersburg, Russia, with the Poulenc Trio.[23]

On January 14, 2010, Hahn appeared on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien for an interview in support of her album, Bach: Violin & Voice.[24]

Hahn has been interested in cross-genre collaboration and pushing musical boundaries. She began performing and touring in a crossover duo with singer-songwriter Josh Ritter in 2007 and with singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau in 2005.[25] She has recorded songs with "…And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead".[26] In 2012, Hahn released an album with German pianist and composer Hauschka entitled Silfra. The songs on the disc were completely improvised. Silfra was produced by Valgeir Sigurðsson.[27][28] According to Hahn, "Other musicians cross genres all the time. For me it's not crossover—I just enter their world. It frees you up to think in a different way from what you've been trained to do."[29]

In June 2014 Hahn was awarded the Glashütte Original MusikFestspiel-Preis of the Dresden Music Festival.[30]

Beginning in 2016, Hahn has piloted free concerts for parents with infants, a knitting circle, a community dance workshop, a yoga class, and art students. She plans to continue to create these community-oriented concerts, encouraging people to combine live performance with their interests outside the concert hall and providing opportunities for parents to hear music with their infants, who might be barred from traditional concerts.[31]

Commissioning

Hahn is also a noted champion of new works. In 1999, she commissioned Edgar Meyer to write a concerto. She later recorded the piece with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.[32] In 2010, a concerto written for Hahn by Jennifer Higdon and recorded with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Music.[33]

Hahn commissioned 26 contemporary composers to write short encore pieces for In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores. Among the composers are David Del Tredici, Jennifer Higdon, Du Yun, Elliott Sharp, David Lang, Nico Muhly, James Newton Howard, Valentyn Sylvestrov and Max Richter.[34] For the 27th encore, she held an open contest that drew more than 400 entries and was won by Jeff Myers.[35] The international premiere tours, from 2011 to 2013, were met with wide critical and audience acclaim.[36][37][38] In November 2013, these 27 short pieces were released on Deutsche Grammophon.[39] The recording won the Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance.

In 2016 and 2017, in recital tours across the U.S., Europe, and Japan, Hahn premiered six new partitas for solo violin by Antón García Abril, her first commissioning project for solo violin, as well as her first commission of a set of works from a single composer. The relationship with García Abril was forged during In 27 Pieces: the Hilary Hahn Encores. Digital and physical editions of the complete sheet music will be released by Musicnotes and Boosey & Hawkes.

Film music

Hahn began her film recording career as the soloist for James Newton Howard's score for M. Night Shyamalan's The Village in 2004. The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.[40] Hahn's recording of Samuel Barber's Violin Concerto was used extensively in The Deep Blue Sea, starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. The film uses the piece's second movement to accompany a nine-minute sequence.[41] In 2013 Hahn was the soloist on Andrew Hewitt's score for the film The Sea.[42]

On playing Bach

In 1999, Hahn said that she played Bach more than any other composer and that she had played solo Bach pieces every day since she was eight.[3]

Bach is, for me, the touchstone that keeps my playing honest. Keeping the intonation pure in double stops, bringing out the various voices where the phrasing requires it, crossing the strings so that there are not inadvertent accents, presenting the structure in such a way that it's clear to the listener without being pedantic – one can't fake things in Bach, and if one gets all of them to work, the music sings in the most wonderful way.

— Hilary Hahn, Saint Paul Sunday[43]

In a segment on NPR entitled "Musicians in Their Own Words", Hahn speaks about the surreal experience of playing the Bach Chaconne (from the Partita for Violin No. 2) alone on the concert stage. In the same segment, she discusses her experiences emulating a lark while playing The Lark Ascending by Ralph Vaughan Williams.[44]

Instrument

Hilary Hahn, violin, and Valentina Lisitsa, piano, Kuss Auditorium, Clark State Performing Arts Center, Springfield, Ohio, 2009

Her violin is an 1864 copy of Paganini's Cannone made by Vuillaume.[45] In an interview on Danish television, she states that she almost never leaves her instrument out of sight. Hahn uses bows by American bow maker Isaac Salchow[46] and French bow makers Émile Ouchard[citation needed], Paul Jombar, and Emil Miquel. For her strings, she uses Thomastik-Infeld Dominants for the A (aluminum wound), D and G (silver wound) and uses a Pirastro Gold Label Steel E.[47]

Journal

Hahn's official website includes a section entitled "By Hilary". In the Strings Magazine interview, Hahn said that the idea for her "Postcards from the Road" feature originated during an outreach visit to a third-grade class in upstate New York. The class was doing a geography project in which the students asked everyone they knew who was traveling to send postcards from the cities that they were visiting, in order to learn more about the world. Hahn decided to participate after receiving a positive reaction from her suggestion that she take part as well.[3] Hahn enjoyed her first year's experience with the project so much that she decided to continue it on her new website.[48] A few years later, she expanded the postcards to a journal format. Journal entries usually include photographs from her tours and rehearsals.

Personal life

Hahn and her husband are now based in Cambridge, MA after living in New York City for several years. [49] [50] They have two daughters, Zelda and Nadia.[51]

Discography

Partita for Violin Solo No. 1 in B Minor, BWV 1002, and Sonata for Violin Solo No. 2 in A Minor, BWV 1003.

References

  1. ^ a b "Great Performances – Hilary Hahn". PBS.org. PBS. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  2. ^ Smith, Linell (December 15, 1991). "What nature gave, a 12-year-old hones with discipline". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on October 7, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  3. ^ a b c d e Zaustinsky, Julia (August–September 1999). "A Conversation with Hilary Hahn". All Things Strings. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  4. ^ Smith, Linell (October 9, 1994). "Hilary Hahn to play at Lincoln Center". The Baltimore Sun. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  5. ^ a b c Cary, Emily (April 30, 2013). "Visionary violinist Hilary Hahn and the Philadelphia Orchestra together again". The Washington Examiner. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  6. ^ "Hilary Hahn, 15 – Beethoven Violin Concerto, Lorin Maazel, 1995". theviolinchannel.org. The Violin Channel. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  7. ^ Ross, Adrian (November 15, 2005). "A moment with Hilary Hahn". The Daily Princetonian. Archived from the original on April 2, 2012. Retrieved May 29, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Davidson, Justin (November 28, 1997). "Past Her Prime at 17? : Younger violinists are fast on the heels of Hilary Hahn. But she doesn't feel the heat". The Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  9. ^ "Curiosity". Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. Season 30. Episode 1755. February 25, 2000. PBS. Retrieved August 6, 2017.
  10. ^ Great Performances (December 2001). "The Art of Violin: Hilary Hahn". PBS. Archived from the original on July 26, 2008. Retrieved May 13, 2008. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  11. ^ Beaucage, Réjean (November 5, 2003). "Hilary Hahn – The Lady Ascending". La Scena Musicale. 9 (3). Archived from the original on November 22, 2008. Retrieved May 13, 2008. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  12. ^ Huizenga, Tom (September 12, 2010). "First Listen: Hilary Hahn Violin Concertos, Old And New". NPR. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  13. ^ Bialostozky, Evan (2 April 1999). "Hilary Hahn's Beethoven/Bernstein". Yale Herald. Archived from the original on 12 October 2013. Retrieved 2 October 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  14. ^ Clements, Andrew (March 6, 2008). "Schoenberg & Sibelius: Violin Concertos, Hahn/ Swedish Radio Symphony Orch/ Salonen". The Guardian. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  15. ^ von Rhein, John (December 2, 2011). "Brahms and Stravinsky Violin Concertos Hilary Hahn..." The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  16. ^ Woolfe, Zachary (September 20, 2010). "Brahms and Stravinsky Violin Concertos Hilary Hahn..." Capital. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  17. ^ Stearns, David Patrick (October 2, 2004). "Hilary Hahn's best disc to date. She gives an excellent performance of Elgar, an Englishman who doesn't always travel well". The Philadelphia Inquirer. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  18. ^ von Rhein, John (March 31, 2007). "Youthful Hilary Hahn delivers beauty, artistry and maturity". The Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  19. ^ "Hilary Hahn". The San Francisco Classical Review. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ "Birthday Concert for Pope Benedict XVI". Deutsche Grammophon. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  21. ^ Johnson, Melinda (August 5, 2010). "Violinist Hilary Hahn Finds Skaneateles 'Very Peaceful'". The Syracuse Post-Standard. Archived from the original on October 12, 2013. Retrieved October 2, 2013. {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  22. ^ Wise, Brian (July 23, 2011). "At Marlboro, They Come to the Vermont Woods to Play, Not To Perform". WQXR. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  23. ^ Hilary Hahn & Francis Poulenc Trio on YouTube
  24. ^ "The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien: Rob Lowe, Jane Krakowski, Hilary Hahn". TV.com. Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved February 13, 2010. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  25. ^ Rose, Joel (March 4, 2007). "Concert Violinist Plays Indie-Rock Gigs". Weekend Edition Sunday. NPR. Retrieved May 13, 2008.
  26. ^ Reich, Ronni (February 17, 2013). "Respecting fans' good taste: Violinist Hilary Hahn deftly blends the familiar with the obscure". The Newark Star-Ledger. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  27. ^ Smith, Steve (July 6, 2012). "'Silfra,' by Hilary Hahn and Hauschka". The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  28. ^ Huizenga, Tom (May 13, 2012). "First Listen: Hilary Hahn And Hauschka, 'Silfra'". NPR. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  29. ^ Bargreen, Melinda (January 15, 2007). "Hilary Hahn at ease in classical, "jeans and chains" worlds". The Seattle Times. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  30. ^ "US-Geigerin Hilary Hahn erhält Preis der Dresdner Musikfestspiele". Neue Musikzeitung (in German). Retrieved November 21, 2015.
  31. ^ "Violinist Hilary Hahn gives concerts for babies". The Strad. Retrieved August 1, 2017.
  32. ^ Huebner, Michael (September 25, 2011). "Violinist Hilary Hahn to reprise Edgar Meyer concerto with Alabama Symphony". AL.com. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  33. ^ Schweitzer, Vivien (April 21, 2010). "Despite Anxiety and Naysayers, Composer Wins Her Pulitzer". The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  34. ^ Mermelstein, David (October 26, 2011). "The Commissioner of Short Works". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  35. ^ Robin, William (February 12, 2012). "New Kind of Online Dating: Classical Competitions". The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  36. ^ Swed, Mark (May 8, 2013). "Review: Hilary Hahn's 27 Pieces strikingly eclectic at Disney Hall". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 12, 2012.
  37. ^ Woolfe, Zachary (February 25, 2013). "For Encores, an Artist Invites Social Media Onstage". The New York Times. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  38. ^ Downey, Charles (February 17, 2013). "Violinist Hilary Hahn's new encores served as musical dessert at Kennedy Center". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 2, 2013.
  39. ^ Clemency Burton-Hill (November 5, 2013). "Hilary Hahn's project In 27 Pieces: Reviving the encore". BBC Culture. Retrieved January 12, 2015.
  40. ^ Cunningham, Greta (February 11, 2005). "Hilary Hahn transitions from young phenom to established soloist". Minnesota Public Radio. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  41. ^ Turan, Kenneth (March 23, 2012). "Movie review: Rachel Weisz a passionate force in 'Deep Blue Sea'". The Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  42. ^ Lodge, Guy (July 2, 2013). "Edinburgh Film Review: 'The Sea'". Variety. Retrieved October 11, 2013.
  43. ^ Saint Paul Sunday (April 1, 2001). "Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin". American Public Media. Retrieved May 13, 2008. An excerpt from the liner notes to Hahn's album Hilary Hahn Plays Bach.
  44. ^ David Schulman; Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr (October 13, 2004). "Musicians in Their Own Words: Hilary Hahn". NPR. Retrieved May 13, 2008.
  45. ^ "Hilary Hahn,Violin". the Strad. Archived from the original on April 22, 2016.
  46. ^ "Bows by Isaac". Salchow & Sons. Retrieved February 15, 2018.
  47. ^ "Famous Violinists and Their String Brands". violin-strings.com. Retrieved November 21, 2015.
  48. ^ O'Niel, L. Peat (August 26, 1999). "Guest Violinist, 19, Sets Virtuoso Tone In Loudoun Symphony Performance". The Washington Post. Retrieved May 29, 2010.
  49. ^ Joshua Barone (October 5, 2018). "Hilary Hahn Returns to Bach, 21 Years Older. And Maybe Wiser". New York Times.
  50. ^ Colin Eatock (May 27, 2012). "Violinist opens up - onstage and online". Houston Chronicle. Retrieved August 28, 2018.
  51. ^ Joshua Barone (October 5, 2018). "Hilary Hahn Returns to Bach, 21 Years Older. And Maybe Wiser". New York Times.
  52. ^ Quinn, Emily (October 13, 2005). "Albums by Trio Mediæval, Hilary Hahn, Natalie Zhu enter Billboard Classical Chart". Playbill Arts. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  53. ^ Der Kleine Hörsaal – Die Geige mit Hilary Hahn, AllMusic
  54. ^ Hilary Hahn Photo Archived February 19, 2012, at the Wayback Machine, Daylife (February 8, 2009)
  55. ^ "Best Albums" – #6 Archived August 28, 2011, at the Wayback Machine by Seth Colter Walls, Newsweek
  56. ^ "Bach: Violin & Voice". Amazon.com. Retrieved February 13, 2010.
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