CLASSICAL
Violinist Hilary Hahn loves coming to Houston to play.
In her rise to the upper echelon of the world’s solo violinists, Hilary Hahn has collaborated with world-famous conductors and cutting-edge composers. And one sweaty Texas rock band.
Roughly 20 years ago, Hahn found herself “fangirling” when two members of …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead — the Austin art-rockers known for their pummeling guitar assault and take-no-prisoners attitude toward their equipment — approached her backstage after a performance. (It was in either Dallas or Houston, she figures.) Conrad Keeley, the band’s cofounder and primary frontman, asked her to help flesh out a melody he had written in a college classical-music appreciation class.
The result, “To Russia, My Homeland,” appeared on Trail of Dead’s 2004 album “Worlds Apart.” Hahn also played on two songs on their next release, “So Divided.” She joined them onstage a few times during this period, including a memorable Moscow gig where she borrowed an electric violin to match the band’s onstage din.
“I never did that many shows with them, but it was really spectacular, the energy onstage with them,” says Hahn. “I really loved it. Because, you know, the double drum kit wailing away, and everything’s plugged in.
“There was just so much sound,” she adds. “It was really great.”
Hahn, 40, returns to Houston this weekend, coming off an appearance at the Dallas Symphony’s Women in Classical Music symposium in which she performed, gave a keynote speech and won the symposium’s Award of Excellence. It marked her first time onstage after taking a yearlong sabbatical, which was interrupted by the coronavirus pandemic.
As she learned to adapt to such realities of lockdown life as her kids jumping on the bed behind her during a Zoom call, Hahn says she began exploring “ways to be a musician from afar.” Her new approach is already bearing fruit: Besides returning to the concert stage, Hahn will be serving a virtual residency this fall for the Philharmonic Society of Orange County in California.
“I think all of this is stuff that