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Hilary Hahn

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File:Hilary Hahn color mural - credit Kasskara courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon.jpg
Hilary Hahn - credit Kasskara courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon

Hilary Hahn (born November 27, 1979 in Lexington, Virginia) is an American violinist.[1]

Biography

Hahn began playing the violin one month before her fourth birthday in the Suzuki Program of Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory.[1] 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 twelve, 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.[2]

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 of 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.[3]

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 of 2007. In the future, Hahn and Chris Thile plan to make a collaboration album.[4]

She began performing and touring in a crossover duo with singer-songwriter Josh Ritter in 2005 and (early 2007) with singer-songwriter Tom Brosseau.[5]

Career

File:Hilary Hahn Mendelssohn Shostakovich Concertos Album Cover 2002 Sony Classical.jpg
Hilary Hahn - Mendelssohn & Shostakovich Concertos Album Cover - 2002 SonyClassical

In 2001, Time Magazine named Hahn as “America’s Best” young classical musician [6]. 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.[7] Hahn signed with Deutsche Grammophon in 2003 after her contract with Sony expired in 2002.[7]

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

Hilary Hahn plays a copy of Paganini's "Cannon" Guarneri, made in 1864 by Jean Baptiste Vuillaume.[8] Hilary Hahn uses medium gauge Thomastik Dominant strings (silver G & silver D, aluminum A) and Pirastro Wondertone Gold E. She uses bows by French bow makers Paul Jombar and Emil Miquel.[2] Hilary Hahn uses Liebenzeller Kolophonium Gold ll rosin on her bows.[citation needed]

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.[2]

"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."[9]

In a segment on NPR entitled “Musicians in Their Own Words”, Hahn speaks about the surreal experience of playing the Bach Chaconne (from the Solo Violin Partita 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.[10]

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.[11]

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.[2] 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 March 13, 2008, when she was in Tokyo, Japan.

Discography

References

  1. ^ a b "Biography". HilaryHahn.com. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  2. ^ a b c d Julia, Zaustinsky (2002-11-14). "Hilary Hahn: Fulfilling her Promise". All Things Strings: Cover Story. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  3. ^ Great Performances (2001). "The Art of Violin: Hilary Hahn". PBS. Retrieved 2008-05-13. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  4. ^ "Tensions Mountain Boys at Carnegie Hall". Carnegie Hall. 2007-03-17. Retrieved 2007-08-30. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Rose, Joel (2007-03-04). "Concert Violinist Plays Indie-Rock Gigs". NPR Music. Weekend Edition Sunday. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  6. ^ Teachout, Terry (2001). "America's Best". Time Magazine. Retrieved 2006-03-21.
  7. ^ a b Beaucage, Réjean (2003-11-05). "Hilary Hahn - The Lady Ascending". La Scena Musicale. 9 (3). Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  8. ^ Reel, James (2005). "A Star Ascending". Strings Magazine. 125. Retrieved 2008-05-13. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |month= ignored (help)
  9. ^ Saint Paul Sunday (2001-04-01). "Bach's Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin". American Public Media. Retrieved 2008-05-13. An excerpt from the liner notes to Hahn’s album Hilary Hahn Plays Bach.
  10. ^ David Schulman and Jeffrey Freymann-Weyr (2004-10-13). "Musicians in Their Own Words: Hilary Hahn". NPR Music. Retrieved 2008-05-13.
  11. ^ Ross, Adrian. Q&A: A moment with Hilary Hahn. The Daily Princetonian. Retrieved from the World Wide Web on December 14, 2005.
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