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 final six seasons. He is celebrated for his musical versatility and creativity, and for his dedication to humanitarian causes. Hope appears 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 by the London Observer as “the most exciting British string player since Jacqueline du Pré.” A recent New York Times review summarized him as “a violinist of probing intellect and commanding style,” and noted: “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 final six seasons. He is celebrated for his musical versatility and creativity, and for his dedication to humanitarian causes. Hope appears 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 by the London Observer as “the most exciting British string player since Jacqueline du Pré.” A recent New York Times review summarized him as “a violinist of probing intellect and commanding style,” and noted: “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.”

A highlight of Hope's 2012-13 season is the release of two major albums on Deutsche Grammophon: the first, the premiere recording of Max Richter's Vivaldi Recomposed, will be released in October; the second, Spheres, to be released in early 2013, considers the idea first proposed by Pythagoras that planetary movement creates its own kind of music. This concept has fascinated philosophers, musicians, and mathematicians for centuries, and Hope offers his own vision – presenting pieces by composers as diverse as Bach, Gabriel Prokofiev, and Arvo Pärt. On the recital stage, Hope begins his season with concerts throughout Europe, focused on his celebrated recording The Romantic Violinist: A Celebration of Joseph Joachim. In October, Hope travels to Austin, Texas where he curates a symposium on music composed at the Theresienstadt concentration camp; also that month, Hope and Kahane give the world premiere of Nico Muhly's Compare Notes at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. In January he presents 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: the Oslo Philharmonic in September; the Russian National Orchestra in November; the Indianapolis Symphony in February; the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in March; and the European Union Youth Orchestra, under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy, in April. In May he presents the Japanese premiere of Birtwistle's Violin Concerto with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra led by Stefan Asbury. Summer marks Hope’s return to Germany’s Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, where he serves as Artistic Director, hosting 125 concerts in over 80 venues. During his 2011-12 season, audiences were treated to a replay of his highly-praised East Meets West program at New York’s 92nd Street Y and at Washington DC’s Library of Congress; other highlights were a recital program of The Romantic Violinist with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and a concert tour of Austria with the Tonkünstler Orchestra.

In September 2011, Gramophone declared: "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, celebrated 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. Hope’s previous releases on the famed yellow label include Air. a baroque journey; Vivaldi Concertos, Arias, and Sonatas; Mendelsohn’s concerto and Octet for Strings; and Terezín/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 was hailed worldwide and earned a Grammy nomination.

Beyond the concert stage, Hope has penned three books published in Germany: Familienstücke (Family Album); his best-selling memoir, Wann darf ich klatschen? (When Do I Applaud?); and Toi, Toi, Toi. He has written scripts for collaborative performance pieces with the Oscar-winning actor Klaus Maria Brandauer, such as “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 presents 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 play Bartók duos with him on German television. This launched a long artistic partnership consisting of over 60 concerts together, including Lord Menuhin’s final appearance in 1999, in which he conducted Hope’s performance of Alfred Schnittke’s Violin Concerto.

Over the years, Hope has worked with such conductors as Hans Graf, Daniel Harding, Thomas Hengelbrock, Kurt Masur, Kent Nagano, Roger Norrington, Sakari Oramo, Michel Plasson, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leonard Slatkin, and Christian Thielemann. 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 Nostalghia for violin and strings, 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 from the violin, performing with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Camerata Salzburg, Lucerne Festival Strings, L’Arte del Mondo, and others. He has appeared 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 played in all the world’s most prestigious venues and with the 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-Lipinski” 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 Lipinski, 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 2012. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.