Hilary Hahn

Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979 in Lexington, Virginia) is an American violinist.

Biography

Hahn began playing the violin one month before her fourth birthday in the Suzuki Program of Baltimore's Peabody Conservatory.cite web|url=http://www.hilaryhahn.com/bio.shtml
accessdate=2008-05-13
title=Biography
work=HilaryHahn.com] She participated in a Suzuki class for about a year. Between 1984 and 1989 Hahn studied in Baltimore under the direction of Klara Berkovich. In 1990, at the age of 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, as well as the Paganini Caprices. She also learned about twenty-eight violin concertos, recital programs, and several other short pieces.cite web|url=http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/strings80/CoverStory.shtml
accessdate=2008-05-13
series=All Things Strings: Cover Story
date=2002-11-14
first=Zaustinsky
last=Julia
title=Hilary Hahn: Fulfilling her Promise
url=http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/strings80/CoverStory.shtml]

In 1991, Hahn made her first major orchestral debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Soon thereafter, Hahn debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. In 1995 Hahn made her international debut in Germany with a performance of the Beethoven Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The concert was broadcast on radio and television throughout Europe. A year later, Hahn debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

By the age of sixteen, Hahn had completed the Curtis Institute's university requirements, but elected to remain at the Institute for several more years to pursue additional elective courses, until her graduation in May 1999 with a Bachelor of Music degree. During this time she regularly coached violin with Jaime Laredo, and studied chamber music with Felix Galimir and Gary Graffman. In an interview with PBS in December 2001, Hahn stated that of all the musical disciplines, she is most interested in musical performance. [cite web
url=http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/dialogue/dialogue_violin_hahn.html
accessdate=2008-05-13
title=The Art of Violin: Hilary Hahn
publisher=PBS
month=December
year=2001
author=Great Performances]

Hahn has played with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and the Singapore Symphony Orchestra. She debuted with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in [March 2007. Hahn and mandolinist Chris Thile have discussed the possibility of releasing a duo album. [ [http://www.hilaryhahn.com/journal/101506.shtml "Cincinnati, Ohio - October 15, 2006"] . hilaryhahn.com. October 15, 2006. Retrieved June 21, 2008.] [cite web | url = http://www.carnegiehall.org/article/box_office/events/evt_8401_ma.html?selecteddate=03172007#0 | title = Tensions Mountain Boys at Carnegie Hall | publisher = Carnegie Hall | date = 2007-03-17 | accessdate = 2007-08-30]

She began performing and touring in a crossover duo with singer-songwriter Josh Ritter in 2007 and with singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau in 2005. [cite web|url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=7677066
accessdate=2008-05-13
title=Concert Violinist Plays Indie-Rock Gigs
work=NPR Music
first=Joel
last=Rose
date=2007-03-04
series=Weekend Edition Sunday]

Career

In 2001, Time Magazine named Hahn as "America's Best" young classical musician cite web|url=http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/americasbest/pro.hhahn.html|title=America's Best|publisher=Time Magazine|accessdate=2006-03-21|last=Teachout|first=Terry|year=2001] . In 1996 Sony Music signed Hahn to an exclusive recording contract, making her one of the youngest exclusive artists in the label's history. After Hahn completed her part of the contract with Sony, which was for five recordings over six years, she decided against renewing the contract due to the fact that she and Sony did not agree on her future projects.cite journal
url=http://www.scena.org/lsm/sm9-3/Hilary_Hahn-en.htm
accessdate=2008-05-13
title=Hilary Hahn - The Lady Ascending
date=2003-11-05
first=Réjean
last=Beaucage
work=La Scena Musicale
volume=9
issue=3] Hahn signed with Deutsche Grammophon in 2003 after her contract with Sony expired in 2002. 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. Between 1995 and 2000 she spent performing and studying chamber music at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, 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.

Instrument

Hahn plays a copy of Paganini's "Cannon" Guarneri, made in 1864 by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume. [cite journal
url = http://www.stringsmagazine.com/issues/Strings125/coverstory.html
accessdate = 2008-05-13
title = A Star Ascending
month = January
year = 2005
volume = 125
last = Reel
first = James
work=Strings Magazine] Her strings are medium-gauge Thomastik Dominants (silver G and D; aluminum A) and a Pirastro Wondertone Gold E. She uses bows by French bow makers Paul Jombar and Emil Miquel and Liebenzeller Kolophonium Gold ll rosin.Fact|date=May 2008

On playing Bach

As of 1999, Hahn has stated that she plays Bach more than any other composer and that she has played solo Bach pieces every day since she was eight.

cquote|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. [cite web
url=http://saintpaulsunday.publicradio.org/featured_artists/hahn.html
accessdate=2008-05-13
title=Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin
date=2001-04-01
author=Saint Paul Sunday
publisher=American Public Media An excerpt from the liner notes to Hahn's album "Hilary Hahn Plays Bach".] 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 also discusses her experiences emulating a lark while playing "The Lark Ascending" by Ralph Vaughan Williams. [cite web
url=http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4107716
accessdate=2008-05-13
title=Musicians in Their Own Words: Hilary Hahn
work=NPR Music
date=2008-05-13
date=2004-10-13
author=David Schulman and Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr]

Personal

In an interview with "Strings Magazine" conducted in 1999, Hahn cited several people as being influential on her development as a musician and a student. Two of these influences include David Zinman, the conductor of the Baltimore Symphony and Hahn's mentor since she was ten, and Lorin Maazel, with whom she worked in Europe with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. [Ross, Adrian. [http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/archives/2005/11/15/news/13806.shtml Q&A: A moment with Hilary Hahn] . "The Daily Princetonian". Retrieved on December 14, 2005.]

Hilary's Journal

Hahn's official website includes a unique section entitled "Hilary's Journal". In the "Strings Magazine" interview, Hahn stated that the idea originated while she was participating in a community outreach program for a third-grade class in upstate New York. The class that she visited was doing a geography project in which students of the class asked everyone that they knew who was traveling internationally to send postcards from the cities that they were visiting. The goal was to help the students to better learn about international cities around the globe. Hahn decided to participate after receiving a positive reaction from her suggestion that she take part as well. Hahn enjoyed her first year's experience with the project so much that she decided to continue it. Because the teacher of the original third-grade glass was retiring, Hahn wanted to expand the project's scale. She worked with Sony to establish "Hilary's Journal", a collection of electronic postcards that she periodically posts to her official website informing readers of her travels. Journal entries usually include photographs that Hahn takes while touring the city and during rehearsals. The first entry in Hilary's Journal dates back to January 6, 2002, when she was visiting Copenhagen, Denmark. Another interesting feature of Hahn's official website is a "Weekly Items" section that lists what she is currently reading, practicing, listening to, and watching. The latest entry of her journal was posted on Sept 14, 2008, while travelling to Norway.

Repertoire

* "Hilary Hahn Plays Bach" (1997)
*: Hilary Hahn, violin
* "Beethoven Violin Concerto/Bernstein Serenade" (1999)
*: Hilary Hahn, violin
*: Baltimore Symphony Orchestra
*: David Zinman, conductor
*: Grammy Nominee - Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra
* "Barber & Meyer Violin Concertos" (2000)
*: Hilary Hahn, violin
*: Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra
*: Hugh Wolff, conductor
* "Brahms & Stravinsky Violin Concertos" (2001)
*: Hilary Hahn, violin
*: Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields
*: Sir Neville Marriner, conductor
*: Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra)
* "Mendelssohn & Shostakovich Concertos" (2002)
*: Hilary Hahn, violin
*: Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra
*: Marek Janowski and Hugh Wolff, conductors
* "Bach Concertos" (2003)
*: Hilary Hahn, violin
*: Margaret Batjer, violin; Allan Vogel, oboe
*: Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra
*: Jeffrey Kahane, conductor
* "The Village Motion Picture Soundtrack" (2004)
*: Hilary Hahn, featured violinist
*: Music composed by James Newton Howard
* "Elgar: Violin Concerto; Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending" (2004)
*: Hilary Hahn, violin
*: London Symphony Orchestra
*: Colin Davis, conductor
* "" (2005)
*: Hilary Hahn, violin; Natalie Zhu, piano
*"To Russia My Homeland" from the album "Worlds Apart" by …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (2005)
* " - Gesangsszene" (2006)
*: Hilary Hahn, violin
*: Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
*: Eiji Oue, conductor
*"Witch's Web" from the album "So Divided" by …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead (2006)
*"Fork in the Road" and "Blue Part of the Windshield" from the album "Grand Forks" by Tom Brosseau (2007)
* "" (2008)
*:Hilary Hahn, Violin
*:Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
*:Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor
*: Debuted at #1 on Classical Billboard chart for three straight weeks (the first Schoenberg recording to debut at #1).

References

External links

* [http://www.imgartists.com/?page=artist&id=205&c=2 Full Biography]
*
* [http://www.deutschegrammophon.com/hahn Hilary Hahn] at Deutsche Grammophon
*
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whr25kooJqg&feature=PlayList&p=860664C5C47C36A7&index=0&playnext=1 Hilary Hahn] on a Danish television show en da
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auhNQJ8cVPE&feature=PlayList&p=7E6AFD1AD57A2C91&index=0&playnext=1 Hilary Hahn] plays Bach's Sonata for Violin Solo No.2 in A minor, BWV1003.