Violinist strives
for simplicity

Teamwork is also important
to Hilary Hahn

---

By Tim Ryan
tryan@starbulletin.com

Virtuoso violinist Hilary Hahn, Time magazine's "Best Young Classical Musician" winner last year, could have been a tuba player.

"When I was 3, my dad and I were walking through the neighborhood when we saw a sign about music lessons for 4-year-olds, and I was curious," said Hahn, who joins the Honolulu Symphony tonight and Sunday for the opening weekend of the 2002-2003 Halekulani Masterworks Season. "We went in, and I saw a little boy playing 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' on a tiny violin. I really liked it, so I started the next week. But if he had been playing a tuba, well ..."

So a month before her fourth birthday, Hahn began playing in the children's program of the Peabody Conservatory. At age 10 she was admitted to Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, then made her major orchestra debut a year and a half later with the Baltimore Symphony. Hahn completed the Curtis Institute's requirements at 16 but deferred graduation to study language and literature. She graduated with a Bachelor of Music degree at the age of 19.

"I'm not a workaholic," said the slender woman with delicate features. "I just have a lot to do."

Performing on tour takes her away from her Philadelphia home three weeks a month. During the summer she usually takes language classes, though this past summer, she prepared for upcoming recording sessions for Sony Classical.

"A violinist can't take traditional vacations without playing at all because your muscles get very weak," she said. "It's a bit like being an athlete; you have to stay in shape. And you still have to work on pieces you're planning to play, so in that sense, it's an artistic thing."

The 22-year-old Hahn is soft-spoken, but in an interview situation, she makes sure she articulates an entire thought without being interrupted.

Has the violinist, who has been playing nearly 19 of her 22 years, sacrificed too much for her career? Her answer comes quickly.

"You make choices to some extent, but I've always had different interests, so I make sure I'm able to pursue them," she said.

Hahn enjoys swimming, cycling and paddling but also more solitary activities like reading, writing poetry and photography.

She has never considered herself a child prodigy and strongly dislikes the implication.

"I suppose it can apply to others, but not me," she said. "'Prodigy' suggests something monstrous and unnatural if you look at the derivation of the word.

"It makes me think of a child locked in her room practicing 12 hours a day. That wasn't me," she said. "I work better when I do it at my own pace. I may do a lot of concerts, but I do them in a very planned way."

Hahn's professional career really didn't begin until she was 16, "and that's too old to be considered a prodigy," she said.

Reminded that a music critic once described her music as "the sound of heaven," the violinist seems embarrassed.

"It isn't my music, but the composer's," Hahn says. "I'm the messenger, though I do have my own interpretations.

"So much of music's power is in the notes, and that affects people's moods in different ways on any particular day, though consistency is important."

What Hahn enjoys most about performing is not being the center of attention, but being part of "this big picture, the experience, a circle of unspoken communication between the audience and the stage."

The "team" can sense an audience's general mood and adjust to it.

"If the audience seems reticent, you can try to put more interesting things into the music through phrasing and interpretation," Hahn said. "The point is to be connected and, whether they're interacting or reticent, you make it a win-win situation."

Hahn strives to keep her interpretations simple, so she normally doesn't study the history of piece she'll play -- which in this case will be the Bach Violin Concerto No. 2 in E major. (She'll also be performing, with orchestra violinist Ignace Jang, the Bach Concerto for Two Violins in D minor.)

"I just work on the music, which has to speak for itself," she said. "Audiences don't necessarily read the program notes, so the piece must be clear."

And that works best for her with the violin.

"When I played the piano, I didn't like having to sit in the same place looking at the same wall in front of me," she said. "The violin lets me stand up and move around if I want to.

"And that tuba would have been really hard to fit in an overhead compartment!"

Hilary Hahn with the Honolulu Symphony Conducted by Samuel Wong; also featuring violinist Ignace Jang Where: Blaisdell Concert Hall When: 8 p.m. today and 4 p.m. Sunday Tickets: $15 to $57 at the Blaisdell box office, all Ticket Plus outlets or online at www.HonoluluSymphony.com Call: 792-2000

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