Around the Music Festival

Violinist Hilary Hahn, who had been taking a break, returned to the stage on the 12th, performing with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She played Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 under the baton of Santtu-Matias Rouvali, making his orchestral debut with Philadelphia Orchestra.

Hahn, 46, was born in Lexington, Kentucky, and raised in Baltimore. She took a break from July 2024 to February 2025 due to a cervical disc herniation (neck disc herniation). She briefly returned to work but canceled all her plans again in August to rest and prepare for surgery to replace the disc with an artificial one.

In Hahn’s own social media post, the surgery was performed by a surgeon who was formerly a violinist. Replacing the disc with an artificial one improved the position of her neck and eliminated the pain. The program for that evening also included Tchaikovsky’s Italian Caprice and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 6.

PHOTO：The Philadelphia Orchestra　/　Jessica Griffin