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Hilary Hahn Announces Imminent Return After Spinal Surgery
Violinist Hilary Hahn announced on her social media platforms that she will "shortly return to the stage" after surgery to replace a cervical spinal disc.
Here is what she posted:
"Dear friends, colleagues, and fans,Thank you for your patience and support while I have navigated injury over the past couple of concert seasons. I am still healing in many ways, but I will shortly return to the stage!
As I’ve mentioned, I had pinched nerves that I was trying to preserve and rehabilitate. The first time one of my cervical spinal discs herniated a year and a half ago, I recovered. It was debilitating: I had muscle atrophy as well as ongoing nerve stress. It was not easy to return to performances, but it was the right choice for me, then.
This past summer, that same disc herniated again; it compressed nearly all of my remaining nerve space. It was immediately clear that I needed to pursue more aggressive treatment. Thanks to a phenomenal surgeon (who used to play the violin!), I am now the proud owner of an artificial disc. My career has a future again, my neck has healthier alignment than before, and I am pain free.
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Video Interview with Violinist Blake Pouliot: from del Gesù to Strad
At age 32, Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot is on a roll - he just finished a tour that ended in a Carnegie Hall performance with the Prague Philharmonic, and he recently started playing a beautiful 1728 Stradivari violin.
I caught up with him for this interview at the Colburn School, please enjoy! He will give a chamber recital at 4 p.m. on Sunday of works by Franck (of the Piano Quintet!), Debussy, Mozart and Takemitsu.
In our conversation Blake spoke about his path from starting violin as a seven-year-old in Toronto to the international concert stage. We also talked about his love for his alma mater the Colburn School and how the lessons learned from Robert Lipsett still resonate. He also showed us the 1728 Stradivari violin that he has recently started playing and talked about how he has learned to trust his own creative instincts as a performing artist.
Click here for more information about Blake's recital at 4 p.m. on Sunday at the Colburn School. Keep reading...
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When the Newspaper Fires the Last Music Critic
The last week has brought tremendous loss for arts in America - the potential loss of a home for the performing arts, the loss of voices for the arts - and a terrible realization that these things can happen in an instant.
Last Sunday came the news that the Kennedy Center may be shut down for two years, displacing the National Symphony Orchestra and raising a great many concerns. Time will tell if the Kennedy Center and its resident orchestra will bounce back from the boycotts, the plummeting ticket sales and now the potential years-long shuttering and demolition of the facility. No tangible plans have been presented for its restoration; only for its imminent dismantling.
Then there is the matter of the collective voices dismissed, when the Washington Post cut a third of its entire workforce and laid off some 300 journalists on Wednesday. I have a feeling this is a true and significant death knell for the traditional newspaper.
But importantly for those of us in classical music: this is a significant stage in the erosion of coverage for arts and music.
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The Week in Reviews, Op. 535: Augustin Hadelich, Randall Goosby, María Dueñas
In an effort to promote the coverage of live violin performance, Violinist.com each week presents links to reviews of notable concerts and recitals around the world. Click on the highlighted links to read the entire reviews.
Augustin Hadelich and pianist Orion Weiss performed in recital at Boston Symphony Orchestra’s "E Pluribus Unum" Festival at MIT’s Thomas Tull Concert Hall.
- Boston Musical Intelligencer: "Having been together performing American music, which Hadelich lamentably reports is little known in Europe and elsewhere, the twinlike artists grandly represented the motto, 'out of one, many,' (sic) proposed by our founding fathers in 1776. Music and celebration have been twins since time immemorial, and encountering the very best of the best vividly brought home a sense of attachment to country, especially during these pronounced times of unrest."
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