Hilary Hahn: Doing It Right

Like Rip Van Winkle, I took a little nap.

About the time the Berlin Wall fell, I quit performing. And until last year, I did not pay attention to much of anything new in the musical world. I knew what I liked and I had recordings of most of my favorite pieces already.

One of the shocks of waking up has been discovering how many of the musicians look like kids to me. It's kind of like when the doctors start looking like Doogie Howser.

But one of the real pleasures of waking up has been discovering some of the truly wonderful musicians who are really doing it right. By "doing it right," I mean taking the time and effort to really have something worth saying as a musician, but then also being able to break free of the musical cloister to build connections with the audience.

After the jump, a little homily on how I would have our orchestra be more like Hilary Hahn, who comes to perform with the Houston Symphony on March 29, 30, 31 and April 1.

It's a difficult balance to walk--doing the necessary work to be more than a flash in the pan and yet still remaining connected with the human race.

There are lots of pretty faces on concert posters, and management companies seem always happy to sign a matinee idol who can play higher, faster and louder. In moments of despair, one wonders if Horowitz or Rubenstein could get signed today.

(And yet, in 1914 the prodigy, Heifitz, was admired in Vienna for his golden locks. So maybe it has ever always been thus).

Having mad skillz and sex appeal does not an artist make any more than memorizing the Oxford English Dictionary would mean you have something to say. It takes time, and thought, and inner substance.

But something about spending that much time inside your own head, looking at the four walls of a practice room and analyzing every little sound you make, can be a damaging thing. It can stunt you. And when you emerge, you have so little in common with your audience that you might as well be speaking Martianese.

So there are a lot of ways to never have a career or to mess one up in a hurry.

But then there are musicians who make good decisions, who don't just learn the war horses and the contest pieces the way they are expected to be played. They don't just learn toward the test, or in this case, the contest. And when they do emerge, they are using all the tools to make sure they are speaking the audience's language.

Hilary Hahn appears to be that kind of musician.

She is using all the tools--the same tools that someone her age would be using if she were an indie singer/songwriter: Facebook, a Twitter feed, a Youtube Channel, a blog, Myspace. All of these help break down the barriers and get her across the footlights where she can connect with her listener.

Which leads to some questions. I know the Houston Symphony has web access. Indeed, I imagine they have someone in charge of the website and social media. So:

• How is it that a 30 year old woman with no staff has a bigger, more savy and more effective online and social media presence than the entire Houston Symphony?
• Why is that the Detroit Symphony, in a city the fraction of the size and dynamism of Houston is webcasting live concerts while Houston does not--indeed does not even have a passable Youtube channel?

But tools are only useful insofar as they are directed at the right purposes.  After all, every vapid pop star and boy band has a Facebook page and uploads Youtube videos. There must be substance behind the tools

Here, there is. After two summers at Aspen, I've had my fill of trained monkeys--er, prodigies--making flashy, carbon copies of the violin competition pieces. Hilary Hahn is not the higher/faster/louder contest winning violinist.

Listen to Ms. Hahn describe schooling at home, delaying a career, opting out of the contest circuit, listening to mentors and making decisions that serve music and excellence as matter to be pursued over the long term.




(More good stuff in this multi-part documentary.)

If she is taken at her word, she's sounds more interested in music and violin playing as institutional and historical matters of which she is only one part, rather than being consumed with her own place on the podium.

Someone other than me has coined a term for that type of person:

A "Level 5 Leader"--that rare combination of professional will or confidence, plus humility.
Going from "Good to Great" involves having that kind of leadership on the podium, in the front office, and on the roster.

More on that to come.