Hilary Hahn grew up in Baltimore when David Zinman was chief conductor of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. He once heard the then 10-year-old play - and then took her "under his wing", as she once put it. At the age of 12, she gave her first orchestral concert under his direction, and he was also on the podium when she recorded her first CD with orchestra, which she released at the age of 20. In between, he slowed her down ("don't give too many concerts, don't get an agent too early, finish school") and encouraged her: "I learnt everything I know about playing with an orchestra from him," she said in an interview.
In 2006, when David Zinman had long since moved from Baltimore to Zurich, she performed Britten's Violin Concerto with him at the Tonhalle. Now she is presenting Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 with Paavo Järvi: he is also a long-standing ally who appreciates her "merciless honesty" as well as her crystal-clear tone. And presumably also the art of musical dialogue that his predecessor imparted to her.
