Hilary Hahn Quotes

Author Image

Hilary Hahn

Profession : Musician

Birth : November 27, 1979

When you have a teacher who is part of a tradition, the other people in that tradition are such stars. You just look at them like pop stars.

Hilary Hahn

Edgar Meyer's violin concerto was the first piece of contemporary music I worked on in any depth. I was 18 or 19.

Hilary Hahn

It's no good to do a piece once and then move on because it doesn't have time to develop. I try to play seven or eight concerti in a season, and generally one or two of those are new for me.

Hilary Hahn

The nice thing about the violin repertoire is that it's small enough that you can plan on learning everything at some point - whereas the piano repertoire is so enormous it wouldn't be possible unless you're a learning machine.

Hilary Hahn

My career direction has probably been guided as much by curiosity and my personality as by my early influences.

Hilary Hahn

I have a lot of interests. I daydreamed about various career options growing up; the one I'm in is the first one that worked out, and I love it, so I feel very lucky.

Hilary Hahn

As a professional, you pick up ideas from your colleagues and the orchestras you work with, while coming up with mutual interpretations in very short periods of time.

Hilary Hahn

I try to do a lot of direct contact with the audience, because the audience is part of the concert, too, as much as anyone on stage, and it's a shame not to get to meet them if you get the chance.

Hilary Hahn

One of the most rewarding things is meeting someone after a concert who has never been to a concert before. It is incredibly rewarding when they say, 'This is my first classical concert.' It is really exciting for everyone.

Hilary Hahn

I have always enjoyed literature classes, and I took a fiction workshop for writing and analyzing at Curtis... I don't know if would do it professionally, but it's nice to have the balance with the music.

Hilary Hahn

Musicians are also interpretive artists and we are just as creative as painters and writers. We interpret in a way that expresses ourselves.

Hilary Hahn

I am not trying to be cooler or change my image or get into pop music.

Hilary Hahn

If you start censoring what you're interested in for the audience, you don't give the audience enough credit.

Hilary Hahn

The audience will find the artist who matches their interests. If you're not being true to yourself, your audience can't find you, because there's a wall up between who you are and who they're seeing.

Hilary Hahn

I don't think there's such a difference between older and newer music as there is between one composer and another.

Hilary Hahn

Sometimes, I'm not sure why I wind up doing some of the things I do.

Hilary Hahn

You couldn't be performing if it weren't for the audience. I appreciate them being there. So why not applaud them? They took time out of their schedule to show up and sit in the concert hall and be part of the experience.

Hilary Hahn

It's fine with me if people want to applaud between movements of a concerto. It doesn't bother me - it's part of performance experience.

Hilary Hahn

I always feel I have a long way to go in my playing and my music.

Hilary Hahn