Daniel Hope collaborates with Zurich Chamber Orchestra, AIR Ensemble, Pinchas Zukerman, & others at festivals from Mexico to Germany this summer

(May 2025) — Daniel Hope kicks off the summer season with back-to-back concertos at Mexico’s Festival Paax GNP. A violinist whose “thriving solo career” is “built on inventive programming and a probing interpretive style” (The New York Times), he also maintains a major presence in Europe this summer. Now concluding his ninth season as Music Director of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, he and the conductor-less ensemble take their celebrated “DANCE!” program to Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein andRheingau Music Festivals (July 15–18), after joining Pinchas Zukerman and Amanda Forsyth for a five-stop European tour (June 27–July 1). The tour takes in Germany’s Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, to which Hope returns for two of his signature programs with the AIR Ensemble: “Irish Roots” and “Air: A Baroque Journey” (Aug 28–30). This full lineup follows last month’s announcement of his new appointment as Wolf Trap’s Artistic Advisor for Chamber Music at The Barns and his April 2 appearance on Netflix’s Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney.

Mexican festival, new Wolf Trap appointment, and more

Conductor Alondra de la Parra, Mexico’s Woman of the Year 2018, founded Festival Paax GNP three years ago, bringing together soloists from around the world to play in the Impossible Orchestra, the ensemble she founded to support Mexican women and children. Now the Cancun festival returns for a second edition, at which Hope makes his debut with two appearances this summer. First, with the support of de la Parra and the Impossible Orchestra, he reprises his “soulful, musically complex and vivid” (Seen and Heard International) interpretation of Britten’s Violin Concerto (June 21). The following night, he performs Vivaldi Recomposed, Max Richter’s 21st-century reimagining of The Four Seasons, with a string ensemble drawn from the orchestra (June 22). In 2012, Hope’s recording of Vivaldi Recomposed topped the charts in 22 countries. More recently, as the featured musical guest on the fourth episode of Everybody’s Live with John Mulaney, the new live weekly Netflix talk show, Hope performed Spring 1 from the album with a quintet from San Francisco’s New Century Chamber Orchestra, the second of the two conductor-less ensembles of which he is Music Director.

He returns to the Americas later this summer for a weekend at Virginia’s Garth Newel Music Center, where he gives two programs with the resident Garth Newel Piano Quartet. With members of the quartet, he plays Franck’s Violin Sonata and Schulhoff’s Duo for Violin and Cello (Aug 22), before performing the “Indian Lament” from Dvořák’s Violin Sonatina and joining the full quartet for the Czech composer’s First Piano Quintet (Aug 23).

Audiences in Virginia and the DC area can look forward to seeing more of Hope next season, when he succeeds Wu Han as Artistic Advisor for Chamber Music at The Barnsat Wolf Trap in Vienna, VA. Presented in partnership with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the season-long series brings world-class ensembles and soloists to the rustic venue, providing a unique and immersive experience for classical music lovers. Following last month’s announcement of his new appointment, Hope said:

“I am delighted to join Wolf Trap as Artistic Advisor of its renowned chamber music series, beginning in the 2025–26 season. It is a particular honor to follow in the footsteps of my close friend and esteemed colleague Wu Han, whose vision and energy have shaped this series into one of the most beloved in the country. The Barns at Wolf Trap – with its inviting character, superb acoustics, and intimate atmosphere – offers a rare space where music feels personal and profound. As Duke Ellington poignantly said, ‘Music is the strongest form of magic.’ I look forward to sharing that magic with audiences in this extraordinary setting, and to crafting seasons filled with inspiration, discovery, and joy.”

European festivals with Zurich Chamber Orchestra, AIR Ensemble, and more

This summer, Hope is highly active on the European festival circuit, where many of his engagements feature collaborations with the Zurich Chamber Orchestra (ZCO). At Germany’s Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, he and the ZCO give two performances of his “DANCE!” program, which traces the history of Western dance from medieval times to the present day (July 15 & 16). Hailed as an “infectious musical survey of seven centuries of music” (WRTI, Philadelphia), their double album of the same name scaled bestseller lists worldwide, topping the German classical chart and reaching number two in Canada. They reprise the “DANCE!” program at Germany’s Rheingau Music Festival(July 17), where the violinist also gives a duo recital with accordionist Martynas Levickis (July 18).

These festivals follow Hope’s five-stop European tour with the ZCO. Featuring his accounts of double concertos by Bruch and Vivaldi, with Pinchas Zukerman on viola and Amanda Forsyth on cello respectively, this kicks off at Germany’s Frauenkirche Dresden, of which Hope has been Artistic Director since 2019 (June 27). They complete the tour with dates at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn, of which he is President (June 30); at the orchestra’s Zurich home (July 1); and at the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival, where he also hosts a late-night chamber concert to celebrate the festival’s 35-year history (June 28 & 29).

Hope returns to the German festival in late summer for two signature programs with the AIR Ensemble, his musical collaborator for more than a decade. They revisit the violinist’s “Irish Roots” program (Aug 28 & 30), as heard on the 2024 DG release of the same name, which followed the 2022 documentary Celtic Dreams: Daniel Hope’s Hidden Irish History, seen on PBS stations throughout the United States. Then, to complete the residency, Hope and the ensemble reprise “Air: A Baroque Journey,” an all-Baroque program of Handel, Vivaldi, Falconieri, Westhoff, and others (Aug 29). A similar selection may be heard on their 2009 DG release Air: A Baroque Journey, an “exquisite disc,” of which Gramophone writes: “You can’t ask for much more than that.”

By way of an upbeat to the summer, the violinist joins the Barcelona Symphony for Berg’s Violin Concerto “To the Memory of an Angel” (May 24 & 25), heard in the version completed by Douglas Jarman, which Hope premiered and subsequently recorded with the BBC Symphony, when it was named the “top choice of all available recordings” (Gramophone). He completes the spring with five performances at BTHVN Week 2025 in Germany, where he joins the AIR Ensemble for “Irish Roots” in Potsdam and Bad Honnef (May 28 & 29) before giving a solo recital and gracing two chamber programs at the Beethoven-Haus Bonn (May 30 & 31).

Daniel Hope: upcoming engagements

May 24 & 25
Barcelona, Spain
Barcelona Symphony Orchestra / Salvador Mas
BERG: Violin Concerto “To the Memory of an Angel”

May 28–31
BTHVN Week 2025

May 28 & 29
May 28: Potsdam, Germany
May 29: Bad Honnef, Germany
“Irish Roots”
Traditional Irish music; works by ROSEINGRAVE, PURCELL, OSWALD, O’CAROLAN, and others
With AIR Ensemble

May 30 & 31
Bonn, Germany
Beethoven-Haus Bonn

May 30
Solo recital
WESTHOFF: Violin Suite No. 5 in D minor
WESTHOFF: “Imitazione delle Campane” from Violin Sonata No. 3
SCHULHOFF: Violin Sonata
BIBER: Passacaglia (“Schutzengel”) from Rosenkranz Sonata
SCHNITTKE: A Paganini
ROCHBERG: excerpts from Caprice Variations

May 30
DVOŘÁK: String Quintet No. 2
BRAHMS: String Sextet No. 1
(with Tanja Sonc, violin; Ryszard Groblewski & Ewa Groblewska, viola; Benjamin Nyffenegger & Anna Tyka Nyffenegger, cello; Stéphane Logerot, double bass)

May 31
BEETHOVEN: Violin Sonata No. 6
BEETHOVEN: Piano Quartet No. 1
SCHUMANN: Piano Quintet
(with Tanja Sonc, violin; Ryszard Groblewski, viola; Benjamin Nyffenegger, cello; Oliver Schnyder, piano)

June 6
Klagenfurt, Austria
“Irish Roots”
Traditional Irish music; works by ROSEINGRAVE, PURCELL, OSWALD, O’CAROLAN, and others
With AIR Ensemble

June 21 & 22
Cancun, Mexico
Festival Paax GNP

June 21
The Impossible Orchestra / Alondra de la Parra
BRITTEN: Violin Concerto No. 1

June 22
Chamber Ensemble of The Impossible Orchestra
Max RICHTER: Vivaldi Recomposed

June 27–July 1

June 27: Dresden, Germany (Frauenkirche Dresden)
June 28: Ulrichshusen, Germany (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival)
June 29: Redefin, Germany (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival)
June 30: Bonn, Germany (Beethoven-Haus Bonn)
July 1: Zurich, Switzerland
Zurich Chamber Orchestra
VIVALDI: Concerto for Violin and Cello in B-flat (directing from violin; with Pinchas Zukerman, violin; Amanda Forsyth, cello)
BRUCH (arr. Ettore CAUSA): Concerto for Violin and Viola (with Pinchas Zukerman, viola)
MENDELSSOHN (arr. for orchestra): Octet

June 28 (late-night concert)
Ulrichshusen, Germany
Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival
Program of music and talk (with Jacques Ammon, piano; and others)

July 11
St. Moritz, Switzerland
Festival da Jazz St. Moritz
“America” (conducting from violin)
COPLAND: “Hoe-Down” from Rodeo
PRICE (arr. Paul BATEMAN): Adoration
ELLINGTON (arr. Paul BATEMAN): Come Sunday
BERNSTEIN (arr. Paul BATEMAN): West Side Story Suite

July 12
Warsaw, Poland
Svitlo Orchestra
Open-air concert
VIVALDI: The Four Seasons
Max RICHTER: Vivaldi Recomposed

July 13
Erlangen, Germany
Zurich Chamber Orchestra
Open-air concert
Works by BACH, VIVALDI, and others

July 15 & 16
Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival

July 15: Lübeck, Germany
July 16: Brunsbüttel, Germany
Zurich Chamber Orchestra (violin solo; directing from violin)
“DANCE!” program: music by HANDEL, MOZART, SCHUBERT, PIAZZOLLA, and others

July 17 & 18
Rheingau Music Festival

July 17: Kloster Eberbach, Germany
Zurich Chamber Orchestra (violin solo; directing from violin)
“DANCE!” program: music by HANDEL, MOZART, SCHUBERT, PIAZZOLLA, and others

July 18: Rheingau, Germany
Works by SHOSTAKOVICH, BARTÓK, & KREISLER (with Martynas Levickis, accordion)

Aug 22 & 23
Bath County, VA
Garth Newel Music Center
Garth Newel Piano Quartet

Aug 22
SCHULHOFF: Duo for Violin and Cello
FRANCK: Violin Sonata

Aug 23
DVOŘÁK: Larghetto (“Indian Lament”) from Violin Sonatina
DVOŘÁK: Piano Quintet No. 1

Aug 28–30
Mecklenburg Festival
With AIR Ensemble

Aug 28: Schwerin, Germany 
“Irish Roots”
Traditional Irish music; works by ROSEINGRAVE, PURCELL, OSWALD, O’CAROLAN, and others

Aug 29: Stralsund, Germany
“Air: A Baroque Journey”

Aug 30
Anklam, Germany
“Irish Roots”
Traditional Irish music; works by ROSEINGRAVE, PURCELL, OSWALD, O’CAROLAN, and others