British violinist Daniel Hope has toured the world as a virtuoso soloist for many years, and was the youngest ever member of the Beaux Arts Trio during its last six seasons. He is renowned for his musical versatility and creativity, and for his dedication to humanitarian causes. Hope performs as soloist with the world’s major orchestras and conductors, directs many ensembles from the violin, and plays chamber music in a wide variety of traditional and new venues. Born in South Africa and raised and educated in England, Hope earned degrees at the Royal Academy of Music, where he studied with distinguished Russian pedagogue Zakhar Bron.

Called “adventurous and brilliant” by the New York Times, Hope was also hailed as “the most exciting British string player since Jacqueline du Pré” by the London Observer. A recent New York Times review summarized him as “a violinist of probing intellect and commanding style,” and continued: “In a business that likes tidy boxes drawn around its commodities, the British violinist Daniel Hope resists categorization. Mr. Hope, a compelling performer whose work involves standard repertory, new music, raga, and jazz, emphasizes thoughtful engagement over flamboyant display. In his most personal undertakings, he puts classical works within a broader context – not just among other styles and genres but amid history, literature, and drama – to emphasize music’s role as a mirror for struggle and aspiration.”

Hope's 2012-13 season sees the violinist releasing two major albums on Deutsche Grammophon: the first, the premiere recording of Max Richter's "The Four Seasons Recomposed," will be released in October; "Spheres," to be released in early 2013 looks at the idea, first brought forward by Pythagoras, that planetary movement creates its own kind of music. This idea has fascinated philosophers, musicians, and mathematicians for centuries, and Hope brings his own take on this concept. by including pieces by composers as diverse as Bach, Gabriel Prokofiev and Arvo Pärt. On the recital stage, Hope begins his season with concerts focused on his celebrated recording, The Romantic Violinist: A Celebration of Joseph Joachim, throughout Europe. In October, Hope travels to Austin, Texas where he curates a symposium on music composed at the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Also in October, Hope and Kahane give the world premiere of Nico Muhly's "Compare Notes" at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.   In January, he performs his program "Forbidden Music: Music banned by the Nazis" in Spain, joined by long-time collaborator pianist Sebastian Knauer. In March and April, Hope performs at the Savannah Music Festival, where he has been Associate Artistic Director for ten seasons.

Hope will also perform with some of the world's leading orchestras, including the Oslo Philharmonic in September, the Russian National Orchestra in November, the Indianapolis Symphony in February, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in March, and in April, he performs with the European Union Youth Orchestra under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy. In May, he performs the Japanese premiere of Birtwistle's Violin Concerto with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Stefan Asbury. In the summer, Hope returns to Germany’s Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, where he serves as Artistic Director, hosting 125 concerts in over 80 venues. 2011-12 highlights included a revisiting of his acclaimed East Meets West program at New York’s 92nd Street Y and the Washington D.C.’s Library of Congress, a Romantic Violinist concert at the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and a concert tour of Austria with the Tonkünstler Orchestra.

Gramophone Magazine said of Hope in September 2011: "The remarkable British violinist Daniel Hope is a force to be reckoned with." An exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2007, Hope has earned numerous Grammy nominations, a Classical BRIT award, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, and five consecutive ECHO Klassik Prizes. His most recent CD, The Romantic Violinist: A Celebration of Joseph Joachim, was an homage to the great 19th-century Austro-Hungarian violin virtuoso who was a friend and trusted collaborator of Brahms and the first interpreter and dedicatee – as well as reviser/editor – of works by Bruch and Dvorák. His previous releases on the famed yellow label include Air: A Baroque Journey; Vivaldi Concertos, Arias and Sonatas; Mendelsohn’s concerto and octet; and Terezin/Theresienstadt. Hope previously recorded for Warner Classics and Nimbus, playing Bach, Berg, Britten, Elgar, Finzi, Foulds, Ireland, Mendelssohn, Mozart, Penderecki, Schnittke, Shostakovich, Tippett, Walton, and Weill. His interpretation of Ravi Shankar’s compositions, on the CD East Meets West, met with worldwide acclaim and a Grammy nomination.

Beyond the concert stage, Hope has penned three books published in Germany, titled Familienstücke (Family Album), his best-selling memoir, Wann darf ich klatschen?” (When do I clap?), and Toi, Toi, Toi. He has written scripts for collaborative performance pieces with the Oscar-winning actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, including “War and Pieces,” “Mozart Unplugged!” and “Dietrich Bonhoeffer – Someone Had to Do Something.” He also wrote “An Audience with Beethoven” for Mia Farrow, and “Forbidden Music,” which features poetry and music written by prisoners at Theresienstadt. Some of these projects received premieres at the Savannah Music Festival.

When Hope was only eleven, he was invited by Yehudi Menuhin to join him playing Bartók duos on German television, launching a long artistic partnership consisting of over 60 concerts, including Lord Menuhin’s final appearance in 1999, in which he conducted Hope’s performance of Alfred Schnittke’s Violin Concerto.

Hans Graf, Daniel Harding, Thomas Hengelbrock, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Roger Norrington, Sakari Oramo, Michel Plasson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin and Christian Thielemann are among the conductors with whom Daniel Hope has worked. Instrumental collaborators include Sting, Thomas Adès, Yuri Bashmet, Edgar Meyer, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Jeffrey Kahane, David Finkel, Wu Han, Lynn Harrell, Jaime Laredo, Sebastian Knauer, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Mark Padmore, Menahem Pressler, and Tabea Zimmermann.

Devoted to contemporary music, Hope has enjoyed close contact with composers such as HK Gruber, Sofia Gubaidulina, György Kurtág, Krzysztof Penderecki, Alfred Schnittke, and Mark-Anthony Turnage. He recorded Toru Takemitsu’s violin concerto, “Nostalgia,” with the composer. In 2008, Hope and Stewart Copeland, the former drummer of The Police, premiered Copeland’s Celeste for violin and percussion at the Savannah Festival. Hope also gave the world premiere performance and recording of the critically-revised violin concerto by Alban Berg. A Sunday Telegraph reviewer wrote of the CD: “I do not think I have ever heard a finer account of the Berg than Daniel Hope gives here, not only played to technical perfection but with its poignant emotional content realized to the full.”

Hope regularly directs chamber orchestras as violin soloist with ensembles including the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Camerata Salzburg, Lucerne Festival Strings and L’Arte del Mondo. He has performed at the world’s most important festivals, such as the BBC Proms and the Lucerne, Hollywood Bowl, Aspen, Ravinia, Salzburg, Schleswig-Holstein, and Tanglewood festivals. He has also performed in all of the world’s most prestigious venues and greatest orchestras, including the Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Toronto, and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras, as well as the major orchestras of Berlin, Birmingham, Dallas, Detroit, Dresden, Israel, London, Moscow, Oslo, Paris, Stockholm, and Vienna.

Daniel Hope plays the 1742 “ex-Lipiński” Guarneri del Gesù, placed generously at his disposal by an anonymous family from Germany. The instrument carries the name of its owner, the 19th century Polish violinist Karol Lipiński, who shared the stage with Paganini, Schumann and Liszt.

May 2013