"I was supposed to be playing Bach, and all I wanted to do was play the Mendelssohn violin concerto, " Hope says.

NPR: The Glamorous Life Of Daniel Hope

In April, composer Vivian Fung won a Juno Award, Canada's top music honors, for her Violin Concerto, which was commissioned, premiered and recorded by Metropolis.

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Hoffman says that when he was a youngster, he fell asleep most nights listening to the magical sounds of Heifetz, especially his recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto.

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Conducts Yehudi Menuhin in a recording of the violin concerto.

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Howard Shore, for example, created a radiant "Lord of the Rings" concert piece from his soundtracks, and John Corigliano's "Red Violin Concerto" is being released September 5 by Sony in a Joshua Bell-led recording.

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She made her Carnegie Hall debut a few months later in a passionate version of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, captivating audiences and dividing critics with her eccentric, heartfelt interpretations and expressive facial and physical gestures.

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Boyar calls it a groundbreaking new work, "Double Concerto for Violin and Percussion" by Harold Farberman, a former percussionist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

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Their reaction to the offense was shock: He was removed from the school and given a new violin instructor, whose first demand of his student was that he learn the Mendelssohn concerto first.

NPR: The Glamorous Life Of Daniel Hope