Violinist Hilary Hahn Wins Avery Fisher Prize

In Thursday’s (1/11) Philadelphia Inquirer, Peter Dobrin writes, “Hilary Hahn was awarded the 2024 Avery Fisher Prize in a presentation … Thursday night at a New York Philharmonic concert for which she was soloist. Hahn, who started at [Philadelphia’s] Curtis Institute at age 10 and graduated almost a decade later in 1999, said it was both ‘shocking and fantastic’ to win the prize, whose previous recipients include Yo-Yo Ma, André Watts, and Midori…. ‘I’ve had colleagues who have won, so I was aware of it all along and thought it was a great thing …,’ Hahn told The Inquirer. ‘And I thought it wasn’t in the cards for me because there are so many great musicians and just one prize.’ The Avery Fisher is one of classical music’s oldest honors—50 years old—and is among the most generous, with a $100,000 award. Hahn says she hasn’t thought much about how she might use the prize money but will ‘probably pay some of it forward.’… Hahn said winning a prize like this is a shot of affirmation. ‘You get to step back a little, and it’s a nudge, like, keep doing whatever you’re doing. It matters to people.’ ”