Hilary Hahn is doing what she does best: shredding a run from Sergei Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in a world-class concert hall — in this case, the Sydney Opera House.
Then, shredding it again. And again. And again, slower this time. She hrrms to herself skeptically, brow furrowed. Suddenly, her woodshedding is interrupted by a prim voice with an Aussie accent over the intercom: Members of the Sydney Symphony, you have approximately five minutes remaining until the Prokofiev. Ms. Hahn, this is your five-minute call.
Hahn isn’t playing onstage at the Sydney Opera Hall complex. She’s backstage in a windowless practice room, where artists inevitably put in the real work. And she’s filming it all for TikTok.
Hahn, now 43, rose to prominence as a preteen, a child prodigy of the generation that produced other wunderkinds like Midori and Sarah Chang. After staking out a social media presence over the past decade or so, she’s brought that seemingly unattainable virtuosity down to Earth. She invites fans to join in on annual #100DaysOfPractice social media challenges, through which she documents the frustrations, breakthroughs and occasional absurdity of playing for an audience of one: yourself.
Hahn’s “musician’s musician” public image and intergenerational fan base made her a prime partner for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, which named her its inaugural “artist-in-residence” in 2021. Marrying onstage appearances and behind-the-scenes educational projects, the new position somewhat echoes the orchestra’s former “creative consultant” role, created for and held by cellist Yo-Yo Ma from 2010 to 2019.
Needless to say, it’s going well. Last month, the CSO extended Hahn’s residency by another season, with one subscription concert and one chamber program announced so far, in addition to her usual educational outreach through the Negaunee Music Institute.
Hahn spoke to the Tribune in December, a visit that included a commanding, controlled performance of the Tchaikovsky concerto and a masterclass with a student string quintet at People’s Music School in Uptown. At the time, negotiations for her residency extension were still ongoing. But even then, one didn’t have to read much between the lines.
“When I stepped onstage for rehearsal this week, immediately we found our groove,” Hahn marveled. “After just a few notes, we were able to match our tone and navigate within the freedom (of the piece). I can tell that we have a way of playing together now. That’s something that I very rarely experience when I return to an orchestra after two, three, four years … And the Negaunee students are amazing. I don’t see stuff like that elsewhere.”
The feeling is mutual. CSO Vice President of Artistic Planning Cristina Rocca — who was involved with discussions around the residency — praised Hahn as a “21st-century, all-around artist.”
“She can speak to all generations. She’s on social media. She’s very interested in visual arts and theater. She’s got a family, so she knows what it means to raise kids and how to talk to kids. And she does the repertoire, of course, but also commissions new work from living composers,” Rocca says.
Her reunion with the orchestra April 13-15, conducted by longtime collaborator Mikko Franck, proves that latter point nicely. Hahn will toss off Pablo de Sarasate’s “Carmen Fantasy,” another well-known solo scorcher she recorded on last year’s “Eclipse.” But she’ll play a rare second work, one she’s also recorded but heard here in a U.S. premiere: “Deux Sérénades,” the last work written by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara.
That those serenades are being heard at all is something of a small miracle. Hahn never met Rautavaara in person before his death in 2016, but she had commissioned him for her encores project, an album of 27 short violin-and-piano works, and performed his only violin concerto with Franck’s Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Through Franck, Hahn asked Rautavaara if he’d consider writing another violin concerto. The elder composer apparently declined, citing poor health, but offered to write her a shorter piece if he felt up to it someday.
And that was that. Or so she thought. After Rautavaara’s death, however, his widow found two serenades for violin and orchestra in his studio. The violin parts were complete; the orchestration was nearly finished, too, and what Rautavaara hadn’t completed himself had been sketched out. Tellingly, the serenades were titled in Finnish and French, the language of Franck’s orchestra in Paris — not Rautavaara’s usual Finnish and English.
“Mikko called me and said, ‘It’s our piece.’ It gave me goosebumps,” Hahn recalls. “I think we were all aware that every note was an ending and a beginning. Every note was the last time that note from him would be heard. And every note was the first time it lived in the world.”
Hahn knew that Rautavaara tended to write self-referentially, quoting and repurposing material from prior compositions over the course of his career. But her continued exploration of the short, seven-minute serenades has only plumbed more riches.
“A few weeks ago, I was on tour with the Finnish Radio Orchestra and a couple orchestra members started talking about Sibelius’ serenades and humoresques. Later, I opened up my app to listen to the (Sibelius) serenades, and I realized the Rautavaara serenades are a direct reference to the Sibelius. It’s also a pair of serenades, and the format for both is similar.”
Before those April concerts, Hahn plays a March 19 recital entirely of selections from Bach’s six unaccompanied sonatas and partitas — pillars of the violin repertoire that have themselves been oft-referenced and re-imagined. (They’re close to the heart of any violinist, but particularly so for Hahn, who made her professional recording debut on the works in 1997; she completed the set in a second release 20 years later.) Then, she reprises Bach the following day for one of her trademark, limited-attendance BYOB concerts at the Symphony Center complex.
That’s Bring Your Own Baby, by the way. Think strollers, not Stella.
“Some of the audience members haven’t been born yet!” Hahn says. “Grown-ups can share their love of this music while the babies do their own thing.”
As Hahn moves into the third year of her residency, she looks forward to making it her own. Initiatives she’s pioneered elsewhere, like BYOB, are just the start. She’s jumped headlong into existing CSO initiatives, like Notes for Peace, which pairs parents who have lost children to gun violence with musicians and songwriters; Hahn joined Civic Orchestra musicians for a concert last year and assisted with songwriting for recording sessions. She also teased potential chamber collaborations with CSO musicians down the line.
“Ultimately, it would be great to have the seasons tie in together,” she says. “I wanted to get a sense of the orchestra’s programs and priorities. How are things integrating into the community? What’s the potential of what’s already in place? And how can I join?”
Hilary Hahn plays solo Bach, 3 p.m. March 19, tickets $55-$299; “Mikko Franck & Hilary Hahn,” April 13-15, $39-$299; both at Symphony Center, 220 S. Michigan Ave.; cso.org
Hannah Edgar is a freelance writer.
The Rubin Institute for Music Criticism helps fund our classical music coverage. The Chicago Tribune maintains editorial control over assignments and content.
