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identity
OCTOBER 2012 5.4 identitymag.com
DEPARTMENTS
101 East 29th Street, 6th Floor New York, NY 10016 P: 212.555.1400 F: 212.555.1401 info@identitymag.com
EDITOR IN CHIEF Deanna Romero MANAGING EDITOR Ruth Lozner ART DIRECTOR Paulina Nguyen EDITORIAL INTERN Carey Ward DESIGN INTERNS Michael Cantor, Megan Doherty, Kelsey Tuck
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Asha Augustine, Christina Bilbrey, Audra Buck-Coleman, Matteo Ceschin, April Chaires, Aurora Colon, Nia Daniels, Ian McDermott, Nicole Page, James Thorpe, Christa Ursini
“What I choose to wear or how I choose to express myself visually is equally important as the music itself” THE MANY FACES OF HAHN-BIN PAGE 76
84 FUSE The electric violinist duo pushes the boundaries of technique and sounds of the electric violin. BY GEORGINA LITTLEJOHN
58 THE FINGERSTYLIN’ PRODIGY
76 THE MANY FACES OF HAHN-BIN
93 J.S. BACH, REINTERPRETED
Sungha Jung is a professional acoustic fingerstle guitarist, and only 15 years old. BY MATTHEW TSANG
HAHN-BIN straddles the line between classical music and avant-garde fashion. BY ALEX HAWGOOD
Many classical musicians are reinterpreting Johann Sebastian Bach’s timeless pieces, with a rock twist. BY CHEN NAN
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identity 5.4 october 2012
42 FEATURED ARTIST
Find out which artists will be performing in your area.
2Cellos has been gaining popularity by blending classical and rock music.
14 DAY IN THE LIFE
100 ONLINE BUZZ
Follow around violinist Vanessa Mae as she goes about her day.
What’s hot in the online community? We’ll let you know who to watch.
18 OBSERVER
104 TECHNIQUE
Eugene Park is a lost talent — what can we do as a community to help?
Learn how to play your stringed instrument like a rock star.
24 NEW ON THE SCENE
110 EDUCATION
Hip hop violinist Lindsey Stirling combines violin, dance, and video games.
Loren Westbrook-Fritts is Strathmore’s Artist In Residence.
36 DIALOGUE
116 REVIEWS
Q&A session with eccentric violinist, Nigel Kennedy.
What did we think about the recent CD releases?
What’s happening to Eugene Park? Some evidence points to abuse and exploitation by his agents in Korea. How can we help? page 18
Identity is published 4 times per year in January, April, July, and October. Volume 5, Issue 4. SUBSCRIPTION RATES U.S., $38 for one year, $76 for two years; outside the U.S., $48 for one year. PRIVACY PROMISE Occasionally we make portion of our customer list available to other companies so they may contact you about products and services that may be of interest to you. If you prefer we withhold your name, simply send a note to: List Manager, Identity, P.O. Box 555081, New York, NY 10016.
COVER Illustrated and designed by Deanna Romero
Photo: Pellaea
65 ARTHUR RUSSELL Arthur Russell died 20 years ago. Celebrate the great composer and performer’s life. BY NIALL O’CONGHAILE
photo: Thomas Prior
50 ANDREW BIRD Andrew Bird is an unusual combination songwriter, violinist, guitarist, vocalist, and professional whistler. BY JONATHAN MAHLER
SUBSCRIBERS Send subscription orders and inquiries to Identity P.O. Box 555081 New York, NT 10016 identitymag.com / 212-555-1400
10 PERFORMANCES
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NEW ON THE SCENE
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continued on page 26
photo: devin graham
lindsey stirling
She has been playing the violin for 19 years with a range that extends from classical to rock and roll. She was recently a contestant and quarterfinalist on America’s Got Talent where she became known as the ‘Hip Hop Violinist’. What’s next for Lindsey Stirling?
At the age of five, after being influenced by the classical music records her father would play throughout the house, Lindsey Stirling requested the opportunity to learn and play the violin. After a year of relentless pleading, her parents afforded her that opportunity despite the family’s financial troubles. She was classically trained through private lessons and orchestras for twelve years. But the classical training didn’t stop Lindsey from exploring other genres, and at the age of 16 she joined a rock band with four friends called Stop On Melvin.
Her creative exploration and experimentation with a wide range of musical genres has led to online success. Lindsey has created music videos that combine violin playing, dance, and video game music. Be sure to check out Lindsey’s videos by scanning the QR codes below, or visiting our website, identitymag.com, where you can find links to these videos and more information on Lindsey Stirling. – DEANNA ROMERO
The Elder SCrolls v: Skyrim medley Original arrangement by Peter Hollens and Lindsey Stirling, based on the main theme from Skyrim Elder Scrolls, which was composed by Jeremy Soule. Cinematography by Devin Graham.
Lord of the rings medley Orginal arrangement by Lindsey Stirling, based on the Lord of the Rings soundtrack by Howard Shore. Filmed in New Zealand. Cinematography by Devin Graham.
Zelda Medley
photos: devin graham
Original arrangement by Stephen Anderson, based on Zelda video game songs by Koji Kondo. Cinematography by Devin Graham. Video edited by Lindsey Stirling and Devin Graham.
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identity 5.4 october 2012
DIALOGUE
nigel kennedy Nigel Kennedy is the classical music prodigy that made this genre of music popular amongst younger generations with his flamboyant and uplifting style. With a string of albums, his unique style and individual appearance has led to success. Do you have to practice for as long as it takes for the music to go into your head to the point where you don’t have to think about it? When you prepare well, you’re really living it, and you’ve thought of it from every angle as far as rhythmic pacing, or how loud or quiet you’re going to play, or what responses you might get from the orchestra. Then you can contribute to actually provoking the orchestra and doing all the right things. But if you’re thinking about what you’re doing too consciously, you’re too worried about yourself, you can’t get a good rapport with the conductor or the players, and it can’t become transcendental. Your feet and your head are on the ground, whereas you need your feet on the ground and your head in the sky in order to get into that other realm. That is what kept the music in our minds since the geezer originally wrote it. If it was pure technical music, it wouldn’t live and it wouldn’t still be here. It’s got to come from the heart.
So, would you say, the key is to take the audience onto another level? Absolutely. And it’s almost like a communal experience. It’s like a séance in some ways, and everyone’s zoning in on the same energy, but if you’re too self-conscious, you’re going to fuck up that energy. You’ve got to be aware of everything around you — almost more than you’re aware of playing it yourself — and then you’re in a position to do something.
As such a high-profile musician, do you feel like you are putting yourself on the line every time you make a record or step on stage?
Do you get very nervous before you go on stage? Normally about a week before, but on the night I have to drink about a gallon of tea in order to get some nerves up for it. If you’re not nervous, then that’s a really bad sign. You don’t want it to be just another rehearsal, do you? You want it to have some special energy.
Do you find your interpretation of the classical repertoire changes as you get older? It certainly changes as you’ve got more things either that you’re doing in your life or are happening to you in your life. You’ve got another perspective on everything as time goes by, but whether that’s to do with age or just to do with the fact that you’ve experienced something, I don’t know.
There’s the stereotype of classical music being ‘upper class’ taste, does that annoy you? I think it would be a shame if that was still the case. I hope that things have opened up a bit. I hate the thought of classical music being locked behind the doors of a private club. I know there is still a little bit of that but my career does seem to have the bullshitometer factor. Anyone who might be a little bit prejudiced is going to show it against me so I bring the musical bigots out into the open! continued on page 39
photo: Rankin/emi
You know, as a soloist the pressure isn’t as big as it seems really. I’m not actually frightened of mistakes; I’ve seen some of the best musicians make them, but
it didn’t detract from the performance. There was one guy called Vlado Perlemuter who was a phenomenal authority on Chopin, and he started some mazurka and he couldn’t remember the fucker. He started it four times, and eventually he had to walk off and get the music, but it was still one of the best Chopin recitals I’ve ever heard.
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I hate the thought of classical music being locked behind the doors of a private club.
How big of an influence would you say both Menuhin and Grappelli have had on you throughout your life? Menuhin had a big influence on me in terms of this spiritual thing where he could play four notes and it would be worth 1000 notes played by another violinist. He was a great role model for me, because he was the only one playing with people like Ravi Shankar and Grappelli, and I was also interested in playing other types of music. Grappelli was absolutely unique. He wouldn’t practice or do yoga like Yehudi; he’d be having a spliff and a brandy before a show. I saw two totally different ways of life, and what they both taught me by being themselves is that I don’t need to copy anybody, and that it’s not a good idea to try and be the second Menuhin or the second Grappelli because neither of them was trying to be the second anybody.
Which other violinists have had the biggest influence on your playing? Isaac Stern was my absolute favorite above anybody, even Yehudi. Most violinists are only concerned with playing melody, but this guy knew the whole score of what the composer had written, and he’d got the whole architecture in there, just like a great pianist. Another inspiration was Albert Sammons, because he was British and he did the best ever interpretation of the Elgar Violin Concerto. Fritz Kreisler had a really big influence on me, with the beautiful warmth of the heart and the golden sound and this enjoyment of life.
How important is it to keep learning and to be continually open to new musical ideas?
photo: rankin/emi
As a musician, I think it should be a natural state of affairs that you’re learning. I don’t think it’s worth it to self-consciously learn and say, ‘Right, I’ve come up with something new today,’ but as long as you’ve got your ears open it’s cool. Quite often, I’m in a fairly closed state of mind and then I suddenly hear something that blows my mind away, and I think, ‘Fuck, I’ve got to get a bit of that.’ It’s usually from other musicians. – JONATHAN WINGATE
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FEATURED ARTIST
2cellos
If you think classical and pop-rock music make for strange bedfellows, think again. And whatever lines there are, they seem to blur with the talents of the Croatian duo, 2Cellos. 2Cellos, consisting of cellists Luka Sulic and Stjepan Hauser, are being hailed by critics as the new poster boys of classical and crossover music. It all started when, exactly a year ago, they took to YouTube to show a dueling and impassioned interpretation of Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal. Their playing rocks real hard that you can’t help but headbang while their cello strings go a-flying. It doesn’t hurt, too, that these guys, both in their early 20s, are as attractive as they are talented.
In Croatia, Luka and Stjepan are deemed the brightest young things on the classical stage. Individually, they have notched awards and accolades in prestigious competitions even outside their home country, are mentored by the most esteemed in the field and are educated in the finest institutions. With their accomplished backgrounds, it’s inevitable they often get compared and pitted against each other. But rivals, they’re not. It was easy to tell from their banter on the phone, as they poked fun at each other in between answers about their music.
“We uploaded the video January of last year. That was our first collaboration of that kind. The video just went “We’re together all the time now so we have to act viral and got so many views. So many people saw it, like friends,” said Stjepan laughingly, who is a year music labels, TV shows, and [big artists like] Elton older than Luka at 25. “But seriously, we’re really John. We basically made a breakthrough,” said Luka. great friends. We have known each other for a very long time.”
Great music is great music. it is not defined or constrained by the boundaries of its genre. That video generated more than five million views in “We also share the same passion and enthusiasm. It is less than three months. A very impressed Sir Elton interesting that the moment we joined forces, everyJohn made them guest artists in his European tour last thing just exploded,” added Luka. year. They have also been signed up by the recording label Sony Masterworks and released an album And what they’re truly happy about is how people are featuring fresh arrangements and cover versions of taking notice of the unassuming cello, which may not favorite pop-rock songs. enjoy the high profile of say, the piano or the violin in an orchestra. “Which is a pity because it’s the best So, what began as a “crazy vision” to combine forces instrument,” said Luka. “The range of the cello is so in an effort to lure music fans to the “great instrument” big, it can play as low as the double bass and as high they’ve been playing since their childhood gave them as the violin. It has the perfect shape and its sound is more than what they expected. the closest to the human voice.”
Stjepan said that, contrary to common perception perhaps, just because they’re hardcore classicallytrained musicians doesn’t mean their musical tastes are confined to that area. “Great music is great music. It is not defined or constrained by the boundaries of its genre,” he said. Among their main musical influences are “the great classical cellists like Mstislav Rostropovich and the old Russian masters.” They are also huge fans of rock greats U2, AC/DC and other artists who have long-standing careers in the music business. “I like everyone who manages to last long like the legends. They deserve respect. They still perform so well after so many years, and they still improve and get better,” said Stjepan. 2Cellos is also set to record a new album, which will showcase more instruments and exciting collaborations with top artists. – NATHALIE TOMADA
By playing pop and rock with the cello only goes to show that “the cello can do anything and you can play anything with cello,” according to Stjepan.
photo: ad libitum
The overwhelming response, both online and offline, may have come as a surprise to the two, but the attention is nothing but rightfully deserved.
Luka said, “People don’t think of cello as a rock instrument really and we want people to know all the possibilities that the cello can offer. Because in classical music, you only use cello in only one aspect, in only one way…the notes written for the cello [are there] for already 200 years, and there isn’t much you can change. Whereas in our arrangements, we can experiment and we can develop new techniques. There’s a lot of great music — Michael Jackson, Sting, U2 — it’s all the music we love to listen to before. We just decided to use our energy and virtuosity and make all these arrangements.”
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andrew bird FOR THE UNINITIATED, Andrew Bird is a brilliant, genre defying multi-instrumentalist from Chicago. Having picked up his first violin at age four, he is now a virtuoso of the instrument, sometimes playing in classical mode, at other times plucking it like a guitar. He has an eccentric stage presence, surrounded by some bizarre paraphernalia such as huge rotating gramophone speakers. Most pieces involve the live recording of musical parts on one or more instruments. These are then looped and played back for him to accompany with other instruments such as guitar and glockenspiel — as well as his haunting vocals and whistling — building layers of sound.
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Photo: Jim Zellmer
BY JONATHAN MAHLER
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In high school, while Bird’s friends were listening to the Smiths and the Cure, he was listening to Mozart’s Requiem. At Northwestern, though, he began to chafe against his classical training. Bird resented the conservatory’s self-gratifying ethos, the prevailing view that the headier the piece of music the better, even if it alienated the audience. He wanted to improvise rather than play written notes. “There is something comforting about going into a practice room, putting your sheet music on a stand and playing Bach over and over again,” he told me. “But at the same time, it’s not demanding much of you.” Bird moved to Chicago after graduation. He was intent on making his living playing the violin, but he had no desire to audition for classical orchestras. He cobbled together a modest living performing anywhere he could — weddings, funerals, Irish pubs, even a weekend Renaissance fair in Wisconsin. Musically, Bird remained something of a misfit. He had lost interest in classical concertos, but he couldn’t relate to the stark, self-consciously simplistic sound of the post-punk scene that flourished in Chicago in the 1990s. Bird turned elsewhere for inspiration, greedily soaking up a dizzying array of musical genres, from Gypsy to calypso to swing to folk to the so-called hot
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jazz of the Roaring Twenties. “I was on a binge for four or five years, just devouring everything I could get my hands on,” he told me. In his early 20s, Bird got the break that every aspiring musician hopes for: a young executive at Rykodisc, Andrea Troolin, dug his demo out of the slush pile and offered him a record contract. Bird organized a band — Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire — to back him, and they drove down to New Orleans to record their first album, “Thrills,” in five adrenalinefueled days. They had a tiny budget, and Bird, who was obsessed with early American jazz at the time, insisted that they make the record the old-fashioned way — with everyone gathered around a single ribbon microphone, playing each song until they got it right, however late into the night they had to work. None of the Bowl of Fire’s records sold. The band’s tours became increasingly depressing affairs. “We’d roll into town, and there would be no posters advertising our show and no radio stations playing our songs,” Bird told me. “Forty people would show up, and we’d get paid $500, if we were lucky.” In the winter of 2002, with his career going nowhere, Bird decided to change his surroundings. He gave up his small apartment in the city and moved into a barn on his family’s farm in rural Illinois. During his self-imposed exile, Bird went to Chicago one night to open up for a local folk band at an old Irish dance hall. The rest of the Bowl of Fire wasn’t available, so Bird reluctantly agreed to play alone. In addition to his violin, he brought a looping station that he’d been fooling around with on the farm. For the first time, he tried whistling onstage, an act of desperation to keep the audience entertained. “I was worried they were all thinking: Where’s the band?” Bird recalls.
The show went surprisingly well, and Bird, encouraged by the response, decided to go out on his own. Within a matter of months, he was recording his first solo album, “Weather Systems,” and was soon back out on the road, this time with only his violin and his looping station. He played as many shows as he could, often opening for bigger artists like Ani DiFranco. “They were guerrilla attacks,” Bird says. “I would play for 30 minutes for 2,000 people, none of whom knew who I was.”
But slowing down and re-entering reality was proving to be even more difficult for him. Bird is something of a loner. When he’s not on tour, he spends much of his time by himself in the barn on his family’s farm, where he does most of his writing and composing. Being back home, bumping into old friends whom he hadn’t talked to in months, was reminding him of what he gave up to play music. He was feeling, as he put it, “a little bit like a ghost in my own town.” In conversation, Bird is earnest and soft-spoken, so it was more than a little startling when he suddenly and almost violently thrust his bow across his violin a few times, producing what could have been the opening of a Mozart composition. “The first notes I still play when I start a sound check are classical,” he said. “Those are my roots.”
Bird’s second solo album, “The Mysterious Production of Eggs,” released in 2005, garnered critical praise and became a modest sleeper success as word of mouth spread. Bird gradually built a following, while at the same time honing his sound. “In his first couple of albums, you can hear a lot of his influences,” says Troolin, who left Rykodisc many years ago but has continued working with Bird as his manager. “I think it was a matter of him getting that out of his system in some ways and figuring out what an Andrew Bird song sounds like.”
Compositionally, Bird takes simple melodies and gradually extends them into complex arrangements. These melodies pop into his head unannounced. The way it usually works, he will suddenly find himself whistling a new one — Bird is constantly whistling — or even chewing his food to it. He never records melodies or even writes them down. He assumes that if they’re worth remembering, he’ll remember them. The longer they remain lodged in his head, the more likely it is that they will eventually be fashioned into a song. “It’s like I’m my own Top 40 radio station, playing the things that get under my skin,” Bird says. “The ones that really stick are the hits.”
ONE DAY IN CHICAGO, I went with Bird to test out the new speakers he’ll be using on his “Noble Beast” tour. He is going to be touring with a full band — a drummer, a guitarist and a bass player — and he wanted to make sure his violin wasn’t going to be drowned out by the rest of the ensemble. Bird, who plays upward of 200 shows a year, was in the midst of a rare stretch of uninterrupted down time at home. His tours are exhausting. The shows are physically demanding, the rhythm of performing emotionally destabilizing. “There’s this huge outpouring of energy, and if you’re lucky a catharsis, but then there’s this big gaping hole when you’re done,” he told me.
Bird’s approach to songwriting is similarly intuitive and impressionistic. Often, a word or phrase will catch his eye for no apparent reason. Or he might hear a sound — the creaking of a door, the wailing of an infant — or experience a feeling that he’ll want
Photo: Jim Zellmer
BIRD GREW UP IN the northern suburbs of Chicago. His mother, an artist, had visions of all of her children playing classical music, but Bird, the second-youngest of four, was the only one who took to it. He began violin lessons at age 4, using the Suzuki method, which stresses learning by ear.
to match to words. He is more interested in how the words in his lyrics sound, in the mood they create and sense they relate, than in their literal meaning. Bird is essentially inverting the typical songwriting process. The classic singer-songwriter sits down with a notebook to write a song about something. Bird assembles his songs out of his mental collection of resonant words and phrases. So even when the subject of a song is conventional, the lyrics aren’t. Recording is a miserable process for Bird. He frets about sounding too careful, about not being at his best without an audience to engage and impress. To preserve a sense of spontaneity, he never goes into the studio with finished songs. He eats lunch standing up and works 15 hours a day — “until I’m just stupid and in a daze” — so that he won’t have time to question everything he’s doing. He produces his own albums and is often displeased with what he hears; he twice scrapped “The Mysterious Production of Eggs” in its entirety. Bird approached “Noble Beast” differently. He was determined not to labor endlessly over it, beginning the studio work last spring in Nashville and finishing it this fall in Chicago. Bird’s ambitions and talents can send him in a lot of different directions. His last album, “Armchair Apocrypha,” is “erratic and ecstatic,” as Bird puts it. On “Noble Beast,” he worked hard not to let himself get carried away, to keep his songs simple and direct. He wanted the record to be characterized not by the countless peaks and valleys of his live performances but by a single, unifying palette. Having spent much of his career deliberately avoiding repetition, Bird cautiously embraced it on “Noble Beast.” The result is a focused record with a couple of genuinely catchy pop songs.
Bird’s trajectory, his gradual climb to success, is unusual for a business in which careers tend to be made on the back of a big break. But his increasing popularity may also say something broader about the shifting dynamics of the industry. The rock-music business has long been dominated by major labels following a simple formula: They saw what bands were selling and looked for others that sounded just like them. And because these same labels held what often seemed like exclusive access to the key retailers and influential radio stations, it was difficult for independent record companies and more inventive, esoteric artists to find traction in the general public. But with the precipitous drop in record sales, the major labels have lost much of their leverage, and with it, their ability to determine what records will become popular. “Andrew is worried that if he goes too mainstream, he’s going to offend his hard-core fans,” says Steve Martin, one of Bird’s publicists. “I told him that mainstream no longer exists.” As the sun was setting, Bird improvised a song based on a melody that had been in his head for a couple of weeks. He began by plucking out a rhythm on his violin. Once he had started the melody looping, he set the violin on his shoulder and started scraping the bow across the strings, his eyes squinting shut as he entered the thrall of the music. He tapped the foot pedal once more and delivered a sustained, almost eerie whistle into a small microphone wedged into the tailbone of his violin. The room gradually filled with sound as he constructed a song, bit by 15-second bit. Then, with one more click of the pedal, silence was suddenly restored. Bird opened his eyes. “I can gratify myself for hours with this setup,” he said.
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photos (bottom row): Robert Caplin, morgan freeman, v magazine, kevin yaradua, priscilla frank, robert caplin
Photos (top row): Thomas prior, paul maffi, v magazine, kevin yatarola, john blacklow, billy farrel
When the young violinist HAHN-BIN appeared onstage for a recent matinee at the Morgan Library and Museum, a gasp trickled through the audience, which consisted mostly of silver-haired classical-music enthusiasts. Clad in a black sleeveless kimono, dark raccoon-eye makeup and a high mohawk, the soloist resembled an apocalyptic Kewpie doll. BY ALEX HAWGOOD
continued on page 81
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Photos: jen graves, Thomas prior
H
AHN-BIN (who uses only his be mutually exclusive. But for HAHN-BIN, a “The classical-music world needs to be shakfirst name) slunk across the 22-year-old protégé of the eminent violinist en up a little bit,” said Vicki Margulies, artstage with his instrument, Itzhak Perlman, who holds Mozart and War- ist manager for Young Concert Artists Inc., propped himself atop a pi- hol in equal esteem, they are complementary. which selected HAHN-BIN to perform at the ano and whipped his bow Morgan. “And he’s the one to do it.” toward the crowd, more ringmaster than “What I choose to wear or how I choose to concertmaster. He then tore into works by express myself visually is just as important as HAHN-BIN credits Mr. Perlman and the star Chopin, Pablo de Sarasate and Debussy, with the music itself,” he said in a recent interview architect Peter Marino, who financed his New some enhancements: At one point the pia- at Le Pain Quotidien on Grand Street. “Fash- York concert debut in 2009 at Zankel Hall, nist John Blacklow placed HAHN-BIN’s bow ion teaches spiritual lessons. It has taught part of Carnegie Hall, for teaching him how into the violinist’s mouth, while HAHN-BIN me who I am and showed me what I didn’t to straddle two cultural worlds. “The only plucked his violin like a ukulele. know about myself.” person that understood that I was a genre of my own was Mr. Perlman,” he said. “He “Have you ever seen anything like this?” one HAHN-BIN is a rare bridge between Carnegie gets that I have always been a performance female audience member whispered to a Hall and the Boom Boom Room, where he artist who sings through the violin.” friend of hers. performed at a party hosted by V Magazine during New York Fashion Week. He is the In a phone interview, Perlman said: “HAHN“No,” the friend replied. “I’ve never heard latest in a series of classic-musical provo- BIN is an extremely talented violinist who anything like it, either.” cateurs who have included the German vir- is very, very individual. He combines music tuoso Anne-Sophie Mutter, famous for her with drama and a visual element. It’s very Despite sharing a lease at Lincoln Center, the strapless ball gowns; and Nigel Kennedy, a personal to him. When an artist feels it that classical-music and fashion industries tend to genre-bending, hard-partying Brit. personally, the audience does, too.”
HAHN-BIN’s diverse group of fans also includes the fashion personality André Leon Talley, the art maven Shala Monroque, the magazine editor Stephen Gan and the gallerist Barbara Gladstone. “In the context of classically trained musicians, he is quite startling, as they are hardly given to personal theater,” Ms. Gladstone said. He collaborated with the video artist Ryan McNamara on “Production,” a performance at the Louis Vuitton store during Fashion’s Night Out last year, and he walked the runway for the designer Elise Overland last September. This month, he performed at the Stone, an art space in the East Village, in a show curated by the musicians Lou Reed and Laurie Anderson; and played soliloquies inspired by the exhibition “Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures” at the Museum of Modern Art. “The movement, his body, his clothes, his style, his dramaturgy, and, of course, the music, form one strong, complex, multilayered audio-visual image,” said Klaus Biesenbach, chief curator at large for the museum.
Photos: jocelyn bonadio, john blacklow
HAHN-BIN said that defying genres in this manner is an intrinsic part of his personality. “I have never identified as Asian or American, boy or girl, classical or pop,” he said. He was born in Seoul, South Korea; his family moved to Los Angeles when he was 10
so he could study at the Colburn School of is speaking directly to his generation,” Ms. Performing Arts. As a teenager, he would tell Margulies said. “This is his world.” his mother he was going there to practice the violin, then sneak off to see performances by With these bells and whistles comes the ocMs. Anderson or the avant-garde playwright casional accusation that his persona distracts Robert Wilson. He moved to New York in from the music. “There are many people 2004 after being accepted into Juilliard, in my field who have tried to tell me what where he quickly felt like “a strange fruit,” he I should and shouldn’t do with Mozart or said. His classmates didn’t understand why Beethoven, even to this day,” he said. he studied the work of the musician Björk and the photographer Nick Knight along with But Mr. Perlman dismissed any idea that Kreisler and Dvorak. “They would tease me HAHN-BIN’s self-stylization is gimmickry. endlessly,” he said. “It’s not like he is following a trend in classical music right now,” he said. “He is setting Between classes, he’d shop at downtown the trend.” boutiques like Seven New York and Yohji Yamamoto, then return to class decked out At the Morgan, this trendsetting included in Bernhard Willhelm and Martin Margiela. three costume changes from the kimono: a “Everyone’s jaws would just drop,” he said. Karl Lagerfeld-esque tuxedo with an over“I fought with the deans constantly about size flower pin; an asymmetrical shirt dress what I could wear. They finally told me I can with an eye mask made from feathers; and a wear something all black. Naturally, I went boxy red blouse with a plunging V-neckline, onstage wearing a top that had a very deep accessorized with a pair of Jeremy Scott V-neck. I will never forget when the orchestra sunglasses and thigh-high Rick Owens boots. manager ran to me backstage with a safety pin in horror.” “Honestly, to get onstage and balance in my shoes is a lifetime achievement in of itself,” HAHN-BIN said that his use of fashion is part HAHN-BIN said. “Dancers have arms to help of an attempt to make classical music (“the find their balance, but one of my arms, you new underground genre,” he said) relevant see, is doing the most ridiculous things with to a group of young people who may have the violin.” been dragged to concerts by their grandparents. He also posts relentlessly on his Web site, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook. “He
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