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BIOGRAPHY
Hilary Hahn
Hilary Hahn, who has lived in Baltimore since she was three, was born in Lexington, Virginia, in 1979. She began playing the violin one month before her fourth birthday, in the children's program of the Peabody Conservatory. From age five to ten, she studied in Baltimore with Klara Berkovich, a native of Odessa, who taught for 25 years at the Leningrad School for the Musically Gifted.
Admitted to Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music in 1990 at the age of ten, Ms. Hahn made her major orchestra debut a year and a half later with the Baltimore Symphony. From age ten to 17, she studied at Curtis with the legendary Jascha Brodsky, the last surviving student of the great Belgian violinist Eugène Ysaÿe, working closely with him until his death at the age of 89.
Her 1993 Philadelphia Orchestra debut was followed by engagements
with the Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Pittsburgh
Symphony. In March 1995, at age 15, she made her German debut, playing
Beethoven's "Violin Concerto
in D Major" with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
in a concert broadcast on radio and television throughout Europe.
Two months later, she received the Avery Fisher Career Grant. In 1996,
Ms. Hahn signed an exclusive recording contract with Sony Classical
and made her Carnegie Hall debut in New York, as soloist with the
Philadelphia Orchestra.
Though she had completed the Curtis Institute's requirements when she was 16, she deferred graduation and remained at the school for several more years, taking additional elective courses in languages and literature, being coached regularly by Jaime Laredo, and studying chamber music with Felix Galimir and Gary Graffman. In May 1999, at the age of 19, Ms. Hahn graduated from Curtis with a Bachelor of Music degree.
In the 2001-2002 season, Ms. Hahn will tour the United States as soloist
with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam; make an extended
recital tour of North America, Europe, and Japan; play Brahms
with orchestras in Asia; and record concertos of Shostakovich
and Mendelssohn for
Sony Classical.
Top banner photos: A detail of the top, bridge,
strings, and f-holes of a violin; Jascha Heifetz, for many, the greatest
violinist who ever lived. |
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Hilary Hahn, one of America's best
young classical musicians, provides commentary on the past century's
violin greats. |
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Itzhak Perlman, violin superstar of the latter half of the 20th century. |
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This program is available on DVD. |
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