I wound up sticking with violin because it was the strongest current in my life.
Hilary Hahn
Of course everyone has those moments of frustration now and then, when you say, 'I wish I could play well already - or just stop.' But it's too much trouble to stop just for a moment of frustration. It is when you keep going that you make the most progress.
I like to take walks and getting out and seeing things. These experiences are so irreplaceable and give you a whole different perspective on the greater context that you're in. If I didn't try to take advantage of that, I'd be missing out on a lot of really interesting things.
You never know what you're going to learn from which pieces and which composers and colleagues are going to influence that thing you think you know.
I find that Bach is appealing to a lot of different audiences. It really hits people at their core in different ways, but it also creates a meditative space. I just feel like I can play it, and it reaches people.
I never felt like a prodigy. For one thing, the root of the word is rather monstrous, literally. I never really felt like a monster or anything abnormal, because I always had a lot of different interests. But kids tend to focus on one thing, and for me it was violin.
What I do is creative. It doesn't seem like that when I'm playing a piece that was written in the past, but the score is just the outline and everything in it is relative. The key is to make this piece written by someone else belong to you and then connect to the audience.
Edgar Meyer's violin concerto was the first piece of contemporary music I worked on in any depth. I was 18 or 19.
In the performance sense, I find that interpretation is improvisatory in nature. You can go anywhere with an interpretation on any given day.
My teacher was still practicing Bach until his death at 89. I have no doubt that if I live that long, I'll be doing the same thing.
As a young performer, what you need to be doing is building your technique and musicality, not promoting your abilities - unless you're ready to take on all that will result from such an approach.
I love performing. The sounds coming at me are dynamic, colorful and multi-layered. The energy from the musicians around me and from the audience is a swirl of excitement. Sometimes, I can feel the stage vibrating under my feet.
I'm more creative the more rules I have - note values, tempos, dynamic markings. Somehow, I find that really inspiring.
The violin didn't keep me from doing things I wanted to do.
I don't really compare myself to anybody. That would be very unhealthy.
I enjoy reading and thinking, and it's hard to make that space as an artist.
I think when a teacher says that you're ready for something, it means you're ready to learn it. It doesn't always mean that you are completely capable of doing everything that's inside the piece.
That word 'prodigy' has such a derogatory implication. It is used to describe people who are forced to play a lot of concerts very early, people whose audience comes because of their youth, people who are exploited. None of the above really applied to me.
In music you can find your own niche. You can do what you want to do. There is really no job description. You have to find your own way, and that's fun.
You're not supposed to stop and listen and spy on people practicing. It's supposed to be a private thing. But it's when you come face-to-face with yourself and you look for your flaws and you try to fix them yourself, it's a really intimidating process. It can be very discouraging.
Phrasing is the idea of finding sentences and using punctuation in speech. I often look at the score to see what's written in by the composer to see if I can find clues to those directions, like what direction did the composer have in mind, and I try to incorporate those things as much as possible.
I grew up without TV, I grew up listening to radio, I grew up reading.
I remember when I gave my first recital. I thought, 'Oh, my goodness, people are coming to hear me.' I didn't expect anyone to come, and then the whole hall filled up. Of course, it wasn't a big hall, and some of the people were my friends and family.
If you think about it - if you watch a gymnast compete, you don't see their training behind the scenes. You just see the competition. You see the final result when it's polished. And that is very much what people experience with concerts. They go to the concert. And they see the final version.
Everyone is always making transitions in life.
When we talk about music, we tend to place our experiences into one of two categories: making the music and listening to it. Delineating the two seems practical and obvious. In reality, though, there are a lot of opportunities for overlap, and it doesn't matter how you get into the music as long as you connect with it.
I've continued to pursue other interests in my downtime, but I'm glad I'm a musician. It's the perfect career for me.
I grew up in Baltimore.
With a Grammy, if you're releasing your record with a major label, you have a chance with any record. You also have a very long shot with every record.
I've been to New Zealand several times.
There's this feeling of creativity in Iceland.
My career direction has probably been guided as much by curiosity and my personality as by my early influences.
Sometimes, I'm not sure why I wind up doing some of the things I do.
A concert is my experimentation time. I practice playing something several different ways, but in a concert, inevitably I get more ideas onstage, in that combination of focus and adrenaline, than I could ever get in the practice room.
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.
Obviously, something like ballet, you have music, you dance with the music and it's a very direct connection. With visual art, when there's no music that accompanies the art, such as great masterworks in a museum, you wind up interpreting what the artist is doing, how the artist made that work and what they're conveying.
There's so many different ways to play Mozart.
Touring is a more varied and interesting existence than I would have imagined.
One challenge, if you do a website, a Youtube channel, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Ping, other things like that, is you don't have time to be an artist. As a performer, you need to practice.
I like when things happen very quickly, just flash in and flash out. It keeps things interesting.
I like to record. It's very intense.
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.
You don't have any days to spare if you want to improve!
Bach in general was so good with the violin. He just finds the genius way around his music on the instrument.
Kids would come up to me after concerts and give me drawings they've made of violins or, you know, landscapes with a violin floating in it or some sketch of a concert or a portrait of me.
It struck me that it would be fun to just play stuff with Hauschka. Not even have a project in mind, but just get together and make up some music and see what came out.
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.
As more people get into indie bands and alternative music, they're also getting more into other genres that fit those categories, like jazz and classical. It's becoming more rebellious to go to a classical concert. You're getting the younger art house crowd and regular students as well as those who are just curious.
I've always heard the same doomsday concerns and yet, every day, there are people going to a classical concert for the first time - whether it's on a date or being dragged there by their grandmother.
You don't need to be a performer in order to dive into the sensory experience of music. Simply get as close as you can to the source of the music.
