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Among the world's leading violinists, Hilary Hahn emerged in the late 1990s as a prodigy, gaining an enthusiastic international audience before she reached the age of 18. In the decade to follow, she was celebrated for her recordings of standard concerto repertoire from Bach to Barber, as well as for contemporary works by Edgar Meyer and Jennifer Higdon. The latter two composed violin concertos for Hahn that premiered in 1999 and 2009, respectively. In the 2010s, she reached the top of the Billboard classical chart with Hilary Hahn Plays Higdon & Tchaikovsky: Violin Concertos (2010) and Hilary Hahn Plays Bach: Sonatas 1 & 2, Partita 1 (2018).

Born in Lexington, Virginia in 1979, Hilary Hahn began playing the violin in a Baltimore Suzuki class just before she turned four. She started studying with a private tutor, Klara Berkovich, about a year later. They worked together for the next five years at Peabody Prep, after which she auditioned for a spot at the Curtis Institute of Music. She was accepted, and violinist Jascha Brodsky (then 83 years old) took her on as a student. Hahn gave her first full recital at Peabody in 1990, and she made her major orchestral debut a little over a year later, performing with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. She made her European debut four years later at age 15, appearing on a radio broadcast with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Splitting her time between home schooling and the Curtis Institute, Hahn completed her high-school diploma and bachelor's degree requirements by the time she was 16, around the time Sony Classical came forward with a record deal. Hahn was still studying with Brodsky at the time and continued to do so until his death in 1997. That year saw the release of her first album, Hilary Hahn Plays Violin. Hahn debuted at Carnegie Hall soon after. In the meantime, she had opted to remain at the Curtis Institute, where she took literature classes and honed her performance skills until 1999. That year, she released her second album, which paired Beethoven's Violin Concerto and Bernstein's Serenade, and she performed her first commissioned work, the Edgar Meyer Violin Concerto. A recording of that piece was released the next year (Barber & Meyer Violin Concertos), followed by 2001's Brahms & Stravinsky Violin Concertos, which went on to earn a Grammy for Best Instrumental Soloist Performance. Hahn released one more album with Sony, 2002's Mendelssohn & Shostakovich Concertos, before signing a deal with Deutsche Grammophon, which issued Bach: Concertos in 2003.

Hahn was considered a world-class violinist by that time and found herself in high demand over the course of the next few years, making numerous appearances worldwide. She was the violin soloist in James Newton Howard's score for M. Night Shyamalan's 2004 film The Village. In 2005. she branched out into crossover music in a series of concerts with American singer and songwriter Tom Brosseau, and two years later, she appeared in concert in crossover fare once again, this time with Josh Ritter. Hahn also collaborated with the indie rock group ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead. Meanwhile, she issued recordings of works by Mozart, Elgar, and Paganini, among others, and 2008's Schoenberg, Sibelius: Violin Concertos won Hahn a Grammy for instrumental soloist performance (with orchestra). A year later, she commissioned a concerto from Jennifer Higdon. It earned the composer a Pulitzer Prize in 2010, and the recording released that September on Deutsche Grammophon featured Hahn alongside the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. That year, she also had a Top Ten classical album with Bach: Violin and Voice, featuring baritone Matthias Goerne and soprano Christine Schäfer.

Following albums of Mozart, Korngold, and Ives, Hahn collaborated with German prepared piano player Hauschka (aka Volker Bertelmann) on 2012's Silfra, which was entirely improvised. She then began the project In 27 Pieces: The Hilary Hahn Encores, commissioning pieces from a variety of composers to use on tours through the 2012-2013 season. The album won a Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music/Small Ensemble Performance in 2015. That year, Sony released Hilary Hahn: The Complete Sony Recordings.

Deutsche Grammophon issued its own retrospective collection of her recordings in 2018, which also saw the release of Hilary Hahn Plays Bach: Sonatas 1 & 2, Partita 1, her debut for Decca. The latter went to number one on the classical albums chart. ~ Blair Sanderson

Widely regarded as the most distinguished of Czech composers, Antonin Dvorák produced attractive and vigorous music possessed of clear formal outlines, melodies that are both memorable and spontaneous-sounding, and a colorful, effective instrumental sense. Dvorák is considered one of the major figures of nationalism, both proselytizing for and making actual use of folk influences, which he expertly combined with classical forms in works of all genres. His symphonies are among his most widely appreciated works; the Symphony No. 9 ("From the New World," 1893) takes a place among the finest and most popular examples of the symphonic literature. Similarly, his Cello Concerto (1894-1895) is one of the cornerstones of the repertory, providing the soloist an opportunity for virtuosic flair and soaring expressivity. Dvorák displayed special skill in writing for chamber ensembles, producing dozens of such works; among these, his 14 string quartets (1862-1895), the "American" Quintet (1893) and the "Dumky" Trio (1890-1891) are outstanding examples of their respective genres, overflowing with attractive, folk-like melodies set like jewels into the solid fixtures of Brahmsian absolute forms.

Dvorák's "American" and "New World" works arose during the composer's sojourn in the United States in the early 1890s; he was uneasy with American high society and retreated to a small, predominantly Czech town in Iowa for summer vacations during his stay. However, he did make the acquaintance of the pioneering African-American baritone H.T. Burleigh, who may have influenced the seemingly spiritual-like melodies in the "New World" symphony and other works; some claim that the similarity resulted instead from a natural affinity between African-American and Eastern European melodic structures.

By that time, Dvorák was among the most celebrated of European composers, seen by many as the heir to Brahms, who had championed Dvorák during the younger composer's long climb to the top. The son of a butcher and occasional zither player, Dvorák studied the organ in Prague as a young man and worked variously as a café violist and church organist during the 1860s and 1870s while creating a growing body of symphonies, chamber music, and Czech-language opera. For three years in the 1870s he won a government grant (the Viennese critic Hanslick was among the judges) designed to help the careers of struggling young creative artists. Brahms gained for Dvorák a contract with his own publisher, Simrock, in 1877; the association proved a profitable one despite an initial controversy that flared when Dvorák insisted on including Czech-language work titles on the printed covers, a novelty in those musically German-dominated times. In the 1880s and 1890s Dvorák's reputation became international in scope thanks to a series of major masterpieces that included the Seventh, Eighth, and "New World" symphonies. At the end of his life he turned to opera once again; Rusalka, from 1901, incorporates Wagnerian influences into the musical telling of its legend-based story, and remains the most frequently performed of the composer's vocal works. Dvorák, a professor at Prague University from 1891 on, exerted a deep influence on Czech music of the 20th century; among his students was Josef Suk, who also became his son-in-law. ~ Rovi Staff

Emerging on the international music scene in the late '40s, Alberto Ginastera established himself as one of the mid-20th century's most distinctive compositional figures. Although he eventually borrowed sonorities and procedures from the serialist and experimentalist movements of the ensuing decades, he did so selectively and undogmatically, synthesizing with ever-increasing sophistication and discretion the echoes of his native Argentina with the expanding compositional palette of the avant-garde.

Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires in 1916, and even in his childhood showed early promise as a performer and composer. His adolescent years were spent in formal studies at the Williams Conservatory, and within a few years of his admittance to the National Conservatory as an undergraduate, his music was receiving national acclaim in prominent performance venues. Ginastera's initial reputation rested largely on his creative interpretations of and allusions to Argentinean folk materials, as realized in short-form pieces and suites, but by the late '40s and early '50s he had completed more imposing works, such his Piano Sonata No. 1 and his first two string quartets. He had also ventured abroad, first to Tanglewood in 1941, where he became fast friends with Copland, then to other destinations throughout the U.S. in the late '40s, and finally to several venues in Europe during the early '50s, where works such as the Variaciones concertantes and Pampeana No. 3 enjoyed warm receptions. Ginastera likewise introduced internationally acclaimed composers to Argentina. He oversaw an ambitious department at Catholic University (1958-1963), and during his tenure as director of the Latin American Centre for Advanced Musical Studies (1963-1971), his invited guests included Messiaen, Nono, Dallapiccola, and Xenakis.

Ginastera's works from the 1960s, including the opera Don Rodrigo (1963-1964), grew more varied in their methods and ambitious in their scope. He worked actively as a composer and champion of new music despite considerable external obstacles. Ginastera's political views twice put him at odds with the Perón government, which forced his resignation from positions at the National Military Academy and the National University of La Plata (he regained the latter position after Perón's defeat). The opera Bomarzo (1967) was banned by Argentina's de facto president due to its provocative story. Personal problems, including marital strife, stifled the composer's productivity in the late '60s, but his divorce and subsequent marriage to cellist Aurora Natola, and his retirement to Switzerland after decades of teaching in Argentina's most prominent musical institutions, gave Ginastera his second wind. His last years were among his most fruitful, and saw the creation of the Guitar Sonata, Op. 47, Glosses on Themes of Pablo Casals, and the large choral work Turbae ad passionem gregorianam. He died at the age of 67 in Switzerland. ~ J. Neal

Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada has led orchestras on three continents, or four if one counts his Asian tour with the Vienna Symphony. By mid-career, he had amassed a substantial recording career on PentaTone and other labels.

Orozco-Estrada was born in Medellín, Colombia, on December 14, 1977. He began his studies on the violin at the city's Instituto Musical Diego Echavarria Misas but switched to conducting when he was 15. At first, he studied at the Pontifical Xaverian University in Bogotá, and then, at 20, he moved to Vienna, Austria, and enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst, taking courses with Uroš Lajovic. Orozco-Estrada remained in Vienna, married, and settled there permanently, eventually becoming a dual citizen of Colombia and Austria. He served as music director of Austria's Oper Klosterneuburg from 2005 to 2007. A breakthrough in the orchestral field came when he conducted the Tonkünstler Orchester Niederösterreich at the Vienna Festwoche as a last-minute substitute in 2004. That led to an appointment as the orchestra's assistant conductor and then, in 2009, as principal conductor, remaining in that post until 2015, He also served as the principal conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi from 2009 until 2013.

While holding these posts, Orozco-Estrada amassed a strong record as a guest conductor, appearing with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, among other groups. He continued to conduct the Tonkünstler Orchester even after stepping down as chief conductor, and in 2010, he made his recording debut with that group, leading a performance of Mahler's Symphony No. 1 in D major ("Titan") on the Preiser label. In 2013, having guest-conducted the group several times, he became the principal conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra (the hr-Sinfonieorchester). His contract there was extended through 2021. In 2014, he also took on the post of music director of the Houston Symphony, remaining there until 2022. In 2016, Orozco-Estrada signed with the PentaTone Classics label and recorded a series of albums, mostly with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony and the Houston Symphony. Keen on working with young musicians, Orozco-Estrada also became the principal conductor of the Filarmónica Joven de Colombia and led that group on a tour of Europe in 2019. He frequently conducted the Vienna Symphony Orchestra as a guest, and he spent the 2021-2022 season as its chief conductor-designate. In 2022, however, hearing that the orchestra did not plan to extend his initial contract, he resigned. With the Houston Symphony, he issued an album of music by composer Jimmy López in 2022. ~ James Manheim

Pablo de Sarasate was born Pablo Martin Melton Sarasate y Navascuez, the son of a local military bandmaster in the Spanish town of Pamplona, where each July brings the Fiesta de San Fermín and its notorious "running of the bulls." Sarasate demonstrated musical talent very early and began violin lessons at age five. Making his concert debut at eight, Sarasate went to Madrid to study with violinist Manuel Rodriguez Sáez. The boy proved a sensation at the court of Queen Isabel II.

When Sarasate was 12, he and his mother set out for Paris on a journey meant to advance his skills on the violin. But the mother expired of a heart attack on the train en route, and Sarasate himself was diagnosed with cholera. Upon recovery, Sarasate was sent on to Paris; finally he auditioned successfully for Jean-Delphin Alard, violin instructor at the Paris Conservatoire. After five years of study with Alard, Sarasate won the Conservatoire's annual first prize. Thus was launched one of the most exciting and enduring violin careers of the nineteenth century.

Beginning in 1859, Sarasate embarked on a world tour that ran, more or less continuously, for three decades. During a tour of the United States, American artist James McNeill Whistler painted a famous portrait of Sarasate entitled Arrangements in Black. His first appearance in Britain was received with indifference, but a return visit in 1874 yielded better results, and composer Alexander Mackenzie composed a violin concerto for Sarasate that was heard at the Birmingham Festival of 1885. He even became a star in Germany and Austria, where his easy virtuosity might have seemed out of step with German music's more cerebral mainstream. Several of the works written for Sarasate have become staples of violin repertoire, including Lalo's Symphonie espagnole and F minor Concerto, Saint-Saëns' Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso and his First and Third Violin Concerti, Bruch's Second Violin Concerto and the Scottish Fantasy.

Of Sarasate's 57 known compositions, many of which served him well in his own concerts, the majority have been forgotten; they were fashioned in a style that reached little beyond its own time. The Zigeunerweisen, Op. 20, remain an indispensable item in the violinist's repertory, however, and his splashy Spanish Dances, Opp. 21-23 and 26, still furnish enjoyable diversions in the course of many a violin recital. Sarasate's Carmen Fantasy, Op. 25 is likewise a violin standard, and suggests Sarasate's role in transmitting Spanish idioms to greater Europe. Sarasate was not a mainstream Romantic virtuoso in the mold of Joseph Joachim and did not play the Brahms concerto; he played with a lighter touch, and preferred lighter fare.

Sarasate made nine phonograph records in 1904, when he was 60. It is easy to hear from them what made Sarasate such an exciting performer; four decades as a touring concert artist had dimmed his powers very little. Though Sarasate had basically retired to a villa in the seacoast town of Biarritz, France, by 1890, he continued keep his chops up, and performed at the Fiesta de San Fermín every year in his hometown of Pamplona. At his death from bronchitis in 1908 at age 64, Sarasate was in possession of two Stradivarius violins; one was bequeathed to the Paris Conservatoire, and the other the Conservatory of Madrid. The remainder of Sarasate's possessions was left to Pamplona, which has erected a museum in his memory.