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Just in: Hilary Hahn takes a year out

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norman lebrecht

September 02, 2019

The foremost US violinist wants some me-time.

She is brave. And exceptionally sane.

Can’t wait to see that sweater she’s knitting.

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Today’s September 1, the first day of my year-long #sabbatical. Last night, I played a concert in Germany with my friends @dkambremen. And then, when I woke this morning, just like that, this thing I’ve been planning for a decade had begun. It’s super nice and intriguing to begin this stretch of luxurious time, and it’s simultaneously a little intimidating. I love performing, touring, and making music with my colleagues. I’ll miss that for a while. But I love other things too, and I’m curious what it’s like to see Autumn, Winter, Spring, and Summer pass in steady succession. In recent weeks, I’ve been thinking back on the 2018-19 concert season, my #Bach focus year. So much has happened in a relatively short time! I released two solo albums (Bach and García Abril @garciaabrilanton), was artist in residence at Radio France @philharrf, toured the world with solo recitals, played chamber music and a wide range of concertos, performed on four continents, and completed two rounds of #100daysofpractice. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s been intense, busy, and really, really fulfilling. I’m ready to step back and take it all in, sleep, get into a routine, spend time with people I haven’t been around lately, and rediscover myself. Maybe I’ll knit a sweater. Who knows. People have asked me what I’ve planned for this coming year. I have no plans! The best way for me to find out what this sabbatical is meant to be is to start it and see where it wants to take me. I didn’t do anything particularly adventurous on my last one, six months in 2009, but none of it was what I’d predicted beforehand. Yet it was life changing. For this sabbatical, I’ve declined all outward facing work, but I have prepared some materials to post from time to time if I check in. And I’ve got a full, exciting season planned for 2020-21, so I’ll definitely see you then. To all of you out there, you are phenomenal fans. I am grateful for you.

A post shared by Hilary Hahn (@violincase) on Sep 1, 2019 at 4:22pm PDT