About
Daniel Hope (born 17 August 1973, Durban, South Africa) is a British violinist, music teacher and conductor.
English violinist Daniel Hope was born in Durban, South Africa in 1973. He is the son of the Irish-born poet, writer and anti-apartheid activist Christopher Hope. Hope's maternal line was German-Jewish, as his mother's parents fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s. According to the violinist, his direct ancestor was the composer Carl Zelter. Hope Sr. was persecuted in South Africa for his anti-government views, so the family emigrated to England when Daniel was six months old. His mother, Eleanor, got a job as Yehudi Menuhin's secretary and later became his manager. Daniel became a playmate of Yehudi Menuhin's grandchildren, and the violinist himself inspired Daniel to begin violin lessons at the age of four with Sheila Nelson, one of England's best children's violin teachers. He studied at the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with Russian violinists Itzhak Rashkovsky, Felix Andrievsky and Grigory Zhislin, and with Zakhar Bron in Hamburg from 1992 to 1998. Then he studied at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The musician developed a deep respect for the Russian musical tradition.