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A concert soloist since age 14, Hilary Hahn (now the ripe old age of 30) will be performing Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, one of the warhorses of the repertory in the Kansas City Symphony’s season opener. Hahn discusses her early musical career, repertory selections (including the recent Pulitzer Prize winning concerto by Jennifer Higdon), and … the tuba.

David Peironnet: You’ve been playing the violin almost as long as you could walk and talk. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to play some other instrument? If so, what would it be? (Just a hint: if you’ve ever thought about playing the tuba, the Kansas City Symphony has a great program every Christmas for young tuba players)

Hilary Hahn: Funny you should mention tuba. I’ve often said that had I not coincidentally taken to the violin, I might have taken up tuba or soccer! But I think I might have gone for percussion or bassoon or clarinet or bass had I not started violin when I did—I liked listening to or watching people play those when I was in elementary school, which is when most people pick instruments. I’m glad I play violin, though. It is perfect for me in so many ways. For example, as a piano student, I remember wanting to get up and wander while I practiced, but there was nowhere to go because I had to sit down and stay at the instrument. Not the case with violin! Everyone has different preferences. It’s a matter of finding the instrument that best suits the individual.

DP: What if you had never played any type of instrument. What else might you be doing with your life?

HH: Hard to know! If I could go back and redo with variations, I’d have a better answer. The thing is, everything I do and have done affects the decisions I make and the perspective I have. With the way I see things in the version of my life that I’m actually in, I would possibly be a visual artist, teacher, writer, veterinarian, translator, nutritionist, anthropologist, or archaeologist (in that order) if I weren’t a violinist. Those are things I have been interested in during formative times and things that continue to intrigue me. But ask me tomorrow and see if I give the same answer! In short, I have a lot of interests and would feel comfortable pursuing various ones.

DP: Tell us about the type of music which you prefer. You’ve performed compositions by a wide variety of composers from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first. Do you have a favorite? Do your personal preferences change over time? What’s next on the list of Hilary Hahn specialties?

HH: I don’t have favorites; my preferences change every so often, and when I return to playing or listening to works I haven’t revisited for a while, I’m reminded all over again of how great they really are and how impossible it would be for anyone other than that particular composer to write that particular piece. It is amazing to me how much range a single genre (in this case, classical) can have!

I try to not specialize. I learn by picking pieces up and putting them down, working on compositions that are very different from each other, returning, and repeating that cycle. So I play works that are older and popular; older and obscure; newer and popular; newer and obscure; brand new with no established reputation; and everything in between. Pieces’ general significance also seems to change with time, so it is interesting to see that happen.

DP: You seem to enjoy performing music which is considered difficult to play. Certainly the last movement of the Sibelius Violin Concerto fits into that category. Do you intentionally seek out compositions which are difficult to perform, or you are just naturally drawn to them, or do you ever even think about it?

HH: There is no easy music to play. I don’t choose anything for difficulty, because every piece has its own set of challenges, and focusing only on one small aspect of performance would greatly limit my enjoyment of the repertoire. I really do love almost the entire violin repertoire.

One side note: often what seems most technically difficult to the listener is not as tricky as what goes unnoticed. I’d say that the goal is for the hard stuff to serve the emotional impact of the music, not to be the focus. That is actually more of a challenge than any one technical feature!

DP: There is no question but what the Sibelius concerto is an incredibly energetic composition. You also seem to be drawn to other high-energy pieces such as the Barber Violin Concerto which you have recorded. Is this the nature of your personality? Do you see your performances as extending your own personality to your audience? Or, is this music which has its own energy and you are merely the performer? Or, some combination?

HH: I really don’t think a performance is about me! I am just trying to bring the music across. Of course, I can only make convincing decisions based on what I would want to hear as an audience member, so there is inevitably part of my personality in everything I do. I am not particularly drawn to high-energy pieces. There are simply a lot of them in classical music. I also play a number of other works that give extremely different impressions.

DP: What question have I not asked that I should have?

HH: I have a new album out, the newly Pulitzer Prize winning violin concerto Jennifer Higdon wrote for me, paired with the Tchaikovsky concerto. That is very exciting! There has been such buzz about both pieces already, even though one was written a while ago and played by many violinists and the other was written in 2008 and has only been performed by me so far. I am curious what the reaction will be to the album. I like taking on projects that are slightly different from what I have done before. There is never any shortage of ways to experiment.

I should also mention that I write for my website, HilaryHahn.com, which is newly reworked with lots of new material to browse. I interview colleagues for my YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/hilaryhahnvideos), and my violin case tweets at www.twitter.com/violincase. I like to provide as much of a resource for young musicians and interested concertgoers as possible, so I enjoy the process.

By David Peironnet

Special to KCM

David Peironnet has been a concert-goer for more years than he would care to admit, and can clearly recall hearing the Kansas City Philharmonic under the baton of Hans Schweiger. This comes from someone who admits to be only 24 years old though acknowleges that his undergraduate degree was not in math but rather political science -- a group of people who are notoriously able to see only those facts they want to see in statistical data.

David has churned out the newsletter for the Friends of the Symphony - Kansas City for six or seven years. He doesn't recall and really doesn't care how many years it has been because the only thing that's important is the next deadline -- and the one after that.

This is one of a series of interviews he runs periodically usually consisting of five open-ended questions which reveal answers which can give information to the person walking into a concert hall for the first time, or like himself have been enjoying concerts for many years.

David and Kathy Peironnet frequently work at the Friends of the Symphony gift shop which is located in the lobby of the Lyric Theatre. The next time you come to a concert, stop by and say, "hello." Ask for a copy of the current FoS newsletter. If a copy isn't available, just ask and one will be mailed to you.

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