Amadéus Leopold (born August 3, 1987), formerly known as Hahn-Bin, is a Korean-born American classical music artist. A former child prodigy, he made his U.S. debut at age 12 performing at the Grammy Awards’ tribute to Isaac Stern, and became a protégé of Itzhak Perlman at age 13. Following his departure from Juilliard and his New York debut at Carnegie Hall in 2009, he gained widespread attention in the early 2010s for his iconoclastic reframing of classical performance, through his interdisciplinary project The Renaissance of Classical Music.
Early life and education
Born in Seoul, Leopold grew up in the city's Olympic Village, and began playing the violin at age five through the Suzuki method. Following a series of top prize wins at national music competitions, he became the youngest violinist admitted to the Korea National University of Arts at age 8, studying at its campus within Seoul Arts Center under Galamian-school concert violinists Ik-Hwan Bae and Sung-Ju Lee.The Renaissance of Hahn-Bin | Nowness Nowness. Retrieved 13 April 2026. At SAC—a flagship multidisciplinary arts complex in Korea—he also received instruction in visual art, ballet, and drama, alongside his musical training. He made his soloist debut at the age of 10, performing with the Seoul Philharmonic at Sejong Center.Violinist Hahn-Bin: A New Name, A Modern Look — And A Very Old Sound | NPR NPR. Retrieved 1 November 2014.HAHN-BIN 1999-2015 | Leopold FM Leopold FM. Retrieved April 13, 2026.
At age 11, Leopold was brought to the U.S. for his music career and to study with Robert Lipsett.TONIGHT: Rock Me, Amadeus | LAmag Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved April 13, 2026. Within a year of his 1999 arrival in Los Angeles, he made his international debut performing at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards’s Salute to Classical Music as the featured soloist honoring Isaac Stern, and was subsequently awarded the loan of a Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu by the Stradivari Society of Chicago.Night Music . Weekly Wire. Retrieved 13 January 2013. He continued his training with Lipsett at the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles in the ensuing concert seasons, appearing as a soloist with various orchestras throughout California including the Pacific Symphony under Carl St. Clair and the San Diego Symphony under Murry Sidlin, while attending the Crossroads School in Santa Monica.Los Angeles Times | Violinist Hahn-Bin has an antidote for 'The Five Poisons' In a later interview with The New York Times, Leopold said that during his years in Los Angeles, he at times "would tell his mother he was going to Colburn to practice the violin, then sneak off to see performances by Laurie Anderson or the avant-garde playwright Robert Wilson."
Leopold began his studies with Itzhak Perlman at age 13 through The Perlman Music Program in Shelter Island.The Visual Violinist - WQXR WQXR. At 15, he recorded his first conceptual recital project HAZE, which featured works by Arvo Pärt, Leoš Janáček, and Francis Poulenc and was released by Universal Music Korea in 2005.Hahn-Bin Discography: Vinyl, CDs, & More | Discogs Discogs.HAZE | YesAsia YesAsia.com. Retrieved 10 November 2014. Leopold moved to New York City at age 16 to begin full-time studies with Perlman at The Juilliard School. He attended Professional Children's School in Manhattan and continued his studies with Perlman at Juilliard until 2009.
Reflecting later on his time there, Leopold told Interview magazine that Perlman was “an oasis” amid the intense institutional pressures he experienced at the conservatory, and characterized Juilliard's rejection of his burgeoning creativity and individual expression as “apocalyptic.”Iconoclassical: Hahn-Bin, The Violin Virtuoso with a Twist | Interview Magazine Interview Magazine. Retrieved April 13, 2026. He also recalled being surrounded by classmates who “didn't understand why he studied the work of the musician Björk and the photographer Nick Knight” alongside that of classical composers, and having to repeatedly challenge the school's administrators over the strict, gender-prescriptive dress codes governing orchestral and other classical performance. He added that, growing up, Perlman had been “the only person in classical music whose eyes I could look into and know that I was okay [...] no matter what I went into the lesson wearing or what I had on my face,” and “the only person who understood that I was a genre of my own.”
Voicing deep frustration with Juilliard's refusal to support a more holistic artistic development—despite the music, dance, and drama divisions it houses within the multidisciplinary Lincoln Center—he recalled that “[m]ost of the things [he] was learning” there were about “boundaries [and] fitting into the box,” adding:
"I really struggled at Juilliard. [...] I would be in arguments with the deans, asking, ‘Why can't I take drama classes? Why can't I take dance classes?’ Because I'm interested in understanding who I am as an artist, not just what's happening with my fingers. And they would say, ‘Well, if you really are that artistic, go to CalArts.’ [Whenever people would ask] ‘How was Juilliard?’ I'd always joke that my favorite part of my years at Juilliard was the shrink they assigned me."
Career
2009: New York debut
Following his Paris debut at Auditorium du Louvre in 2008, Leopold won First Prize at the 49th Annual Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and gave his New York debut recital in October 2009 at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall as the recipient of the Peter Marino Concert Prize.Louvre Museum | Hahn-Bin, violin Musée du Louvre.Young Korean-American Hahn-Bin Wows Carnegie Hall In Debut Performance | HuffPost New York HuffPost. Retrieved 14 April 2026. Conceived during his final semester at Juilliard, Leopold's program—titled Behemoth and also presented at the Kennedy Center—was noted by critics for departing from the conventional violin recital format in favor of a curated sequence of historical and postwar pairings, juxtaposing John Cage with Chopin, Krzysztof Penderecki with Kreisler, and Witold Lutosławski with Mozart.Hahn-Bin | The New Yorker The New Yorker. Retrieved 17 April, 2026.The New York Times | Back and Forth Between Old and NewThe Washington Post | Virtuoso Makes Striking Terrace Debut In his program notes, Leopold described Behemoth as imagining the musical works as “artworks in a gallery”, with each grouping situated in a distinct “room”.Award Winner Hahn-Bin's Debut at Carnegie Hall Berkshire Fine Arts. Retrieved 16 April 2026. For his encore, Leopold performed Alfred Schnittke’s postmodern Silent Night.
2010-2015: The Renaissance of Classical Music
Overview
Following his uptown debut, Leopold launched The Renaissance of Classical Music in downtown New York at age 22, with a performance at Le Poisson Rouge on May 5, 2010Amadéus Leopold | SHOWstudio SHOWstudio. Retrieved 15 April, 2026.Watch: Hahn Bin at LPR Le Poisson Rouge. Retrieved 17 April, 2026. Described by Leopold as “an all-encompassing project” aimed at serving as “the bridge between classical music, contemporary art and mainstream popular culture,” Renaissance integrated classical repertoire with performance art, visual language, and narrative elements across a range of venues.Performance Art: Talking Major Makeup with Classical Violinist Hahn-Bin | Vogue Vogue.com. Retrieved 15 April, 2026.Hahn-Bin Straddles Classical Music and Fashion | The New York Times The New York Times. Retrieved 17 April, 2026.
Reflecting on his own artistic aims for the project in a later interview with The Seattle Times, Leopold stated: “What I set out to do after Carnegie was to create my own path — not to belong to any industry [...] Creating my own artistic universe has been my only mission.”
The Renaissance launch also marked a shift in Leopold's public presentation and visual aesthetic. While cultivating a heightened stage persona, he eschewed the formal dress codes enforced within classical music institutions, instead incorporating genderfluid designs by Rick Owens, Gareth Pugh, and Martin Margiela.Vogue.com | Art House Vogue.com.i-D 318 – The Royalty Issue models.com cover previews Models.com. Retrieved 17 April, 2026. Describing his mode of self-presentation as the result of an “internal” and “spiritual” process, Leopold cited Cindy Sherman as a key influence on his visual transformations, and noted in interviews that avant-garde fashion functioned as an “incredibly important tool” not only for his Renaissance stage productions, but for articulating “[his] own self rather than what everybody else would rather have [him] be.”Hahn-Bin: Juilliard Meets Studio 54 | HuffPost Entertainment HuffPostArts. Retrieved 15 April, 2016. Extending this stylized persona beyond the concert stage, his presentation drew comparisons to performance artists such as Klaus Nomi and Leigh Bowery, as well as to theatrical traditions such as kabuki and mime.Intense, Ironic, Iconic: Hahn-Bin Takes Joe's Pub at The Public | HuffPost Entertainment HuffPost Entertainment. Retrieved 15 April, 2016.Undead, undead, undead: Hahn-Bin brings classical music back to life | Dangerous Minds Dangerous Minds. Retrieved 15 April, 2016.Hahn-Bin | Anderson Valley Advertiser Anderson Valley Advertiser. Retrieved 17 April, 2026.
Responding to Leopold's interdisciplinary development post-Juilliard, his long-time mentor Itzhak Perlman affirmed the coherence of his artistic evolution, telling The New York Times: “He is an extremely talented violinist who is very, very individual. He combines music with drama and a visual element. It's very personal to him. When an artist feels it that personally, the audience does, too.”
Projects and collaborations
Leopold's soloist projects under the Renaissance banner included Soliloquy for Andy Warhol, a solo violin performance series at The Museum of Modern Art held in conjunction with the exhibition "Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures";MoMA | Andy Warhol: Motion Pictures The Museum of Modern Art. the world premiere of Still Life by Christopher Cerrone at Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony and Ryan McAdams;Hahn-Bin | New York Youth Symphony The New York Youth Symphony. Retrieved 17 April, 2026. and performances of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto with the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall and with the Orchestra of St. Luke’s at Lincoln Center.The Seattle Times | Violinist Hahn-Bin at home with Bowie, TchaikovskyThe New York Times | A Convergence of Blood, Sweat, Tears and Tchaikovsky The New York Times. Retrieved 17 April, 2026.
Recital projects of Renaissance included The Five Poisons—inspired by Buddhist teachings of Pema Chödrön and Thích Nhất Hạnh—presented at venues including the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, the Konzerthaus in Berlin, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, and Strathmore in Maryland;Violinist Hahn-Bin mixes over-the-top visuals with music at Strathmore The Washington Post. Retrieved 17 April, 2026.Hahn-Bin: "The Five Poisons" | The New Yorker The New Yorker. and Till Dawn Sunday, a program drawing on vaudeville’s conception of the classical genre, staged at venues including Joe’s Pub in New York, Royal Albert Hall and Latitude Festival in the U.K., Melbourne Recital Centre in Australia for the Melbourne Festival, Palazzo dei Congressi for the LongLake Festival in Switzerland, Lux Frágil in Portugal, and Royce Hall for UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance.Longlake Festival LuganoUm violinista entre a pop e a clássica | Diario de Noticias Diario de Noticias.Royal Albert Hall | Archive Catalogue Royal Albert Hall.