Daniel Hope (born 17 August 1973 inDurban, South Africa) is a South African born classical violinist.
Hope was born in Durban, South Africa, and is of Irish[1] andJewish German descent, his maternal grandparents, formerly from Berlin, having escapedNazism.[2] His father is the novelistChristopher Hope,FRSL, and his mother Eleanor Hope worked as an assistant toYehudi Menuhin.[3] When Hope was just six months old, his family moved from South Africa to London, because of his father's anti-apartheid views.[4] In the UK Hope was educated atHighgate School[5] and studied at theYehudi Menuhin School inStoke d'Abernon. In 2011 he was appointed visiting professor in violin by theRoyal Academy of Music, where he had studied underZakhar Bron and gained a diploma (DipRAM) and a fellowship (FRAM).[4][6]
Hope became the violinist of theBeaux Arts Trio in 2002.[7] His burgeoning career led to his decision to leave the Beaux Arts Trio, which in turn led to the decision to disband the ensemble.[8] The Beaux Arts Trio, with Hope as the final violinist in the history of the ensemble, gave its final concerts in August 2008.[9]
Hope has served as an associate artistic director of the Savannah Music Festival.[7] In April 2015 he was named the new music director of theZurich Chamber Orchestra, effective in 2016.[10] On 16 March 2018, at the conclusion of a joint performance by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra andNew Century Chamber Orchestra at which he served as concertmaster, Hope was announced as the latter ensemble's new music and artistic director.
In 2017 he was awarded the Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for his merits in the musical constitution of commemorative culture.
Hope plays the 1737[11]Guarneri "ex-Lipinski" violin.
Daniel Hope presented the 2013 documentary filmThe Secrets of the Violin, which explored the history of violin making fromAmati,Stradivari and Guarneri to modern makers likeSamuel Zygmuntowicz.
Hope andTamina Kallert [de] were the presenters for theEurovision Young Musicians 2016 in Cologne, Germany on 3 September 2016.[12]
In March 2020, in response to theCOVID-19 pandemic, Hope began a series of over 100 live concerts broadcast onArte. These broadcasts under the title "Hope@Home" reached an audience of millions,[13] and earned an OPUS KLASSIK award,Sonderpreis der Jury für besondere Leistungen. The project began ashouse concerts filmed at his home in Berlin. Appearing with him were artists, often well known, who were also living in the city.
With the easing of lockdown in the summer of 2020, it became possible to move the concerts out of Hope's home to other locations ("Hope@Home on Tour") before the series came to a temporary halt.
In November, as social distancing tightened across Europe with the second wave of the pandemic, the series resumed in Hope's living-room, this time with a focus on young performers, as "Hope@Home Next Generation". In mid-November the Hope@Home team travelled to San Francisco where Hope worked with the New Century Chamber Orchestra and other artists. Returning to Berlin, the series continued into December 2020.[14]
In December 2021 and 2022, special Christmas concerts were streamed on the ARTE Concert channel.[15]
Hope is in his second marriage to the painter Silvana Kaiser.[16] The couple lived in Vienna and moved to Berlin in 2016. He holds Irish and German nationality.
In 2020 Hope released a disc of highlights from the Hope@Home broadcasts and a Christmas compilation.He has recorded commercially forDeutsche Grammophon since 2007.[17][18]
Hope has been recognised in theEcho Klassik awards (often stylized as ECHO Klassik, this was Germany's major classical music award until its renaming in 2018) and its successor award Opus Klassik.
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| Preceded by | Music Director, Zurich Chamber Orchestra 2016–present | Succeeded by incumbent |
