Polish-born and New York-based violinist Hanna Lachert leads a busy and versatile professional life. She joined the New York Philharmonic in 1972, and plays more than 150 concerts annually with the Orchestra as well as performing with various chamber music groups and as a soloist.

Ms. Lachert played her New York debut in 1972 (under the auspices of Carnegie Hall and Jeunesses Musicales), and has given concerts throughout the United States, ranging from a recital in Carnegie Hall, which was broadcast nationwide over public radio, to solo appearances with the New York Philharmonic (under Zubin Mehta), New Jersey Symphony and Manchester Festival Orchestra among others.

Ms. Lachert has performed worldwide in five continents. She has been a soloist with Polish, Belgian, German, Israeli, and Mexican orchestras and has made many television and radio appearances.

Included in her numerous recordings for the Muza, Telarc, Spectrum, and Musika labels are the complete violin works of Szymanowski, Bartók’s Sonata for Violin, and concertos by Karlowicz and Dvoøák.

In her native Poland she has played in Warsaw, Krakow, Gdansk, and Wroclaw with leading Polish orchestras under the batons of Jerzy Maksymiuk, Boguslaw Madey, Karol Stryja, Stanislaw Wislocki, Antoni Wit, and others. She was also a featured artist in Roman Lasocki’s television series “Mistrzowie Wiolonistyki Polskiej” (Master Polish Violinists).

Throughout her life Ms. Lachert has been a champion of music by contemporary composers, with several compositions written for her, including Charles Whittenberg’s Winter Music, Elzbieta Sikora’s Solo, Marta Ptaszynska’s Mancala, Piotr Lachert’s Trois Sketchs, Concerto per violino, Vino- Vino, and IX Sonata. From Warsaw’s Radio Studio 3 to “Musical Workshop,” “Diabolus Musicus,” and chamber music ensembles under Pierre Boulez, she has played an array of classics of the 20th century.

Ms. Lachert comes from a musical family. Her brother, Piotr, is a composer. Playing from the age of three, she was a child prodigy at the piano, and she took up the violin when she was eight. Her studies culminated in master’s degrees with honors from both the Warsaw Academy of Music and the University of Connecticut. She further earned a Solisten Diploma from the Hochschule für Musik in Hannover and a Premier Prix with distinction from the Royal Conservatory in Brussels.

Ms. Lachert was the president and co-founder of the American Society for Polish Music from 1991 to 1997, for which she received a Paderewski Medal. She is now co-artistic director of the Waterville Valley Music Center in New Hampshire.

Ms. Lachert plays on a violin made in 1982 by her luthier husband, David Segal.

Photo of Hanna Lachert: Chris Lee