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 renowned Russian pedagogue Zakhar Bron.

Called “adventurous and brilliant” by the New York Times Hope was named “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.” ... read full bio

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 renowned Russian pedagogue Zakhar Bron.

Called “adventurous and brilliant” by the New York Times Hope was named “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.”

In October 2011, Hope will bring back his acclaimed East Meets West program to the US with performances at New York’s 92nd Street Y and the Washington D.C.’s Library of Congress. In February 2012, he joins the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in a concert of works influenced and composed by legendary virtuoso violin Joseph Joachim. In addition, March includes performances at the Savannah Music Festival, where he has been Associate Artistic Director for nine seasons, and May brings a concert tour of Austria with the Tonkünstler Orchestra performing Bruch’s famed Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor.  In the summer, Hope returns to Germany’s Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, where he serves as Artistic Director, hosting 125 concerts in over 80 venues.

This past August, Hope invited Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and its Artistic Director’s Wu Han and David Finkel, for a summer residency and tour at Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival with several concerts featuring Hope on violin.  Other highlights of Hope’s 2010-11 season included concerto and recital appearances throughout Europe before coming to the US in December for performances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center and with the New York String Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.  Hope returned to the US in February for a recital tour with frequent collaborator pianist Jeffrey Kahane, followed in March by his annual appearances at the Savannah Music Festival.

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 – and 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 two 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,” featuring poetry and music written by prisoners at Theresienstadt.  Some of these projects received premieres at the Savannah Music Festival.

Yehudi Menuhin invited the 11-year-old Daniel Hope 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, 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, Philippe Entremont, 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, and Concerto Köln.  He has performed at the world’s most important festivals, such as the BBC Proms, and the Lucerne, 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, 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-Lipin´ski” Guarneri del Gesù, placed generously at his disposal by an anonymous family from Germany. The instrument carries the name of it’s owner, the nineteenth century Polish violinist Karol Lipin´ski, who shared the stage with Paganini, Schumann and Liszt.

Audio Clips
Portion of a BBC Radio 3 documentary on Fernando Buschman

Concerto For Violin And Orchestra In E Minor, Op.64
1. Andante
2. Allegretto Non Troppo - Allegro Molto Vivace
Daniel Hope, Violin; Thomas Hengelbrock with the Chamber Orchestra Of Europe from the album Mendelssohn all courtesy of Deutsche Grammophon (Universal).

Last updated September 2011. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.