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BiographyBorn into a Lutheran family, Hahn moved to Baltimore, Maryland at the age of three and began playing the violin one month before her fourth birthday in the Suzuki Program of Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory (Sony Bio).
Hahn’s first two years at Curtis were spent commuting twice a week to and from Philadelphia and Baltimore while being home-schooled (Zaustinsky 1999). 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 1992, she began working towards the Curtis Bachelor’s degree at the age of twelve while taking college courses to fulfill her high school requirements. 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 (PBS Interview).
CareerImage: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 [1]. Throughout her career, Hahn has performed with numerous orchestras around the globe. She previously recorded five albums with Sony Classical, but now records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. In 1996 Sony Music signed Hahn to an exclusive recording contract, which made her one of the youngest exclusive artists in the label’s history. Hahn’s first recording, released in 1997, featured selected solo sonatas and partitas by J.S. Bach, and spent weeks as a bestseller on the Billboard classical charts. Her following recording was released in 1999, and included the Beethoven Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major, as well as Leonard Bernstein’s Serenade for Solo Violin, Strings, Harp, and Percussion. This compilation earned Hahn her first Grammy nomination for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance with Orchestra. The album also appeared as a classical bestseller on the international record charts. In September 1999, Hahn gave the world premiere performance of the Edgar Meyer Violin Concerto with the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Hugh Wolff. Meyer commissioned and wrote the violin concerto specifically for Hahn. A week after the live performance, Hahn recorded Meyer’s work along with Samuel Barber’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra. The two pieces were released by Sony Classical in March 2000 and would later spend several weeks on the Billboard classical charts. The recordings earned Hahn the German Music Critics’ Award and a cover story in the magazine Gramophone. Hahn won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra) for her fourth album released in 2001, which featured Johannes Brahms' Concerto in D Major for Violin and Orchestra and the Stravinsky Concerto in D for Violin and Orchestra. The album was also Hahn’s fourth consecutive classical bestseller. 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. From Sony Classical to Deutsche GrammophonHahn signed with Deutsche Grammophon in 2003 after her contract with Sony expired in 2002. 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 (Lark Ascending). PersonalImage:20Hahn.jpg Hahn often signs autographs and takes photographs with concert-goers following her concerts. What she playsHilary Hahn plays an 1864 Vuillaume violin that was formerly owned by the Russian violinist Samuel Lande who was a friend of Klara Berkovich, Hahn’s first teacher. Hahn uses Dominant strings and bows by French bow makers Paul Jombar and Emil Miquel (Zaustinsky 1999). Hilary’s JournalHahn’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 (Zaustinsky 1999). 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. On playing BachAs 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 (Zaustinsky 1999). The following is an excerpt from the liner notes to Hahn’s album Hilary Hahn Plays Bach: "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." (Saint Paul’s Sunday) 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. The complete transcript can be found here: Musicians in Their Own Words Discography
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