Lili Haydn
Encyclopedia
Lili Haydn is a violin
ist, vocalist, composer
, guitarist
, and actress. As a child, she pursued a career as an actress; at age eight she discovered the violin
and began to focus on classical music
. By the time Haydn was fifteen, she had played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
.
After graduating from Brown University
with a B.A.
in Political Science, Haydn started composing original songs and became one of the most requested session violin
ists around Los Angeles. By the time she signed with Atlantic
in 1997, she had embraced a variety of genres, having played with Quwaali musician, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Porno for Pyros
, Tracy Chapman
, The Jayhawks, Brandy
, Tony! Toni! Tone!
, No Doubt
, Tom Petty
and more. In addition, she has played with, sung with, and opened for Sting, Josh Groban
, Herbie Hancock
, Robert Plant
& Jimmy Page
, Matchbox 20, Seal
, and George Clinton
who calls her "the Jimi Hendrix
of the violin".
, both now deceased, allowed her to choose her own first name. She reportedly chose the name "Helicopter" by which she was known briefly..
movie Easy Money. She also appeared in the first Not Quite Human
TV movie in 1987, and was a regular cast member on the syndicated The New Gidget
.
Her debut album, Lili, was released in the fall of 1997 and was followed by Light Blue Sun in 2003 and Place Between Places in 2008, which she promoted with television and radio appearances such as The Tonight Show
with Jay Leno
, and NPR
. She has a bit part in the Michael Keaton
movie Jack Frost
. She contributed to the score of the Edward Burns
/Jennifer Aniston
film She's the One
(1996), as well as several films with Hans Zimmer
, including Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Haydn won a fellowship to the Sundance Film Institute
composing in 2009, and has composed the film score
s for three films, Jacklight, The Horse Boy (premiered at Sundance Film Festival
and released in 2009 by Zeitgeist Films), and "The Lightmaker".
In 2008, Haydn accompanied Roger Waters
at the Coachella music festival
when they played "Dark Side of the Moon".
Haydn also performed on Cyndi Lauper
's True Colors Tour 2008. That same year she appeared on the cable TV series, Californication
.
and the Burmese pro-democracy movement.
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist, vocalist, composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, guitarist
Guitarist
A guitarist is a musician who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselves on the guitar while singing.- Versatility :The guitarist controls an extremely...
, and actress. As a child, she pursued a career as an actress; at age eight she discovered the violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
and began to focus on classical music
Classical music
Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...
. By the time Haydn was fifteen, she had played with the Los Angeles Philharmonic
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
.
After graduating from Brown University
Brown University
Brown University is a private, Ivy League university located in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. Founded in 1764 prior to American independence from the British Empire as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations early in the reign of King George III ,...
with a B.A.
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in Political Science, Haydn started composing original songs and became one of the most requested session violin
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
ists around Los Angeles. By the time she signed with Atlantic
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
in 1997, she had embraced a variety of genres, having played with Quwaali musician, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Porno for Pyros
Porno for Pyros
Porno for Pyros was an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1992, following the initial break-up of Jane's Addiction...
, Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.-Biography:Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland,...
, The Jayhawks, Brandy
Brandy (entertainer)
Brandy Rayana Norwood , known professionally as Brandy, is an American singer-songwriter, producer, actress, and dancer. In 2009, she introduced her rap alter-ego Bran'Nu....
, Tony! Toni! Tone!
Tony! Toni! Toné!
Tony! Toni! Toné! is an American Soul/R&B group from Oakland, California, popular during the late 1980s and early to mid 1990s. During the band's heyday, it was composed of D'wayne Wiggins on lead vocals and guitar, his brother Raphael Saadiq on lead vocals and bass, and their cousin Timothy...
, No Doubt
No Doubt
No Doubt is an American rock band from Anaheim, California that formed in 1986. The ska-pop sound of their first album No Doubt , failed to make an impact...
, Tom Petty
Tom Petty
Thomas Earl "Tom" Petty is an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is the frontman of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and was a founding member of the late 1980s supergroup Traveling Wilburys and Mudcrutch. He has also performed under the pseudonyms of Charlie T...
and more. In addition, she has played with, sung with, and opened for Sting, Josh Groban
Josh Groban
Joshua Winslow "Josh" Groban is an American singer-songwriter, musician, actor, and record producer. His four solo albums have been certified at least multi-platinum, and in 2007, he was charted as the number-one best selling artist in the United States with over 21 million records in that country...
, Herbie Hancock
Herbie Hancock
Herbert Jeffrey "Herbie" Hancock is an American pianist, bandleader and composer. As part of Miles Davis's "second great quintet," Hancock helped to redefine the role of a jazz rhythm section and was one of the primary architects of the "post-bop" sound...
, Robert Plant
Robert Plant
Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer and songwriter best known as the vocalist and lyricist of the iconic rock band Led Zeppelin. He has also had a successful solo career...
& Jimmy Page
Jimmy Page
James Patrick "Jimmy" Page, OBE is an English multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and record producer. He began his career as a studio session guitarist in London and was subsequently a member of The Yardbirds from 1966 to 1968, after which he founded the English rock band Led Zeppelin.Jimmy Page...
, Matchbox 20, Seal
Seal (musician)
Seal Henry Olusegun Olumide Adeola Samuel , known simply as Seal, is a British soul and R&B singer-songwriter, of Nigerian and Brazilian background. Seal has won numerous music awards throughout his career, including three Brit Awards—winning Best British Male in 1992, four Grammy Awards, and an...
, and George Clinton
George Clinton (funk musician)
George Clinton is an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, and music producer and the principal architect of P-Funk. He was the mastermind of the bands Parliament and Funkadelic during the 1970s and early 1980s, and launched a solo career in 1981. He has been cited as one of the foremost...
who calls her "the Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
of the violin".
Family
Her parents, actress/comedienne Lotus Weinstock and video artist David JoveDavid Jove
David Jove was a Canadian director, producer, and writer, particularly of underground and alternative music-themed films...
, both now deceased, allowed her to choose her own first name. She reportedly chose the name "Helicopter" by which she was known briefly..
Career
As a child actress, Haydn may be best remembered as the young, smart and sassy daughter, Belinda Capuletti, from the 1983 Rodney DangerfieldRodney Dangerfield
Rodney Dangerfield , was an American comedian, and actor, known for the catchphrases "I don't get no respect!," "No respect, no respect at all... that's the story of my life" or "I get no respect, I tell ya" and his monologues on that theme...
movie Easy Money. She also appeared in the first Not Quite Human
Not Quite Human
Not Quite Human is the name of a series of young adult novels by Seth McEvoy about a widower scientist, Dr. Jonas Carson, whose lifetime work was to create an android. Dr. Carson names the android Chip. In order to conceal his project from those who would use Chip or Dr. Carson's skills for...
TV movie in 1987, and was a regular cast member on the syndicated The New Gidget
The New Gidget
The New Gidget is an American television sitcom that aired in syndication from 1986 to 1988. The series was produced by original Gidget series producer Harry Ackerman and was launched after the television movie Gidget's Summer Reunion starring Caryn Richman as Gidget aired in 1985...
.
Her debut album, Lili, was released in the fall of 1997 and was followed by Light Blue Sun in 2003 and Place Between Places in 2008, which she promoted with television and radio appearances such as The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
with Jay Leno
Jay Leno
James Douglas Muir "Jay" Leno is an American stand-up comedian and television host.From 1992 to 2009, Leno was the host of NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, titled The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ,...
, and NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
. She has a bit part in the Michael Keaton
Michael Keaton
Michael John Douglas , better known by the stage name Michael Keaton, is an American actor known for his early comedic roles, most notably his performance as the title character of Tim Burton's Beetlejuice . Keaton is also famous for his dramatic portrayal of Bruce Wayne/Batman in Tim Burton's...
movie Jack Frost
Jack Frost (1998 film)
Jack Frost is a 1998 Christmas film, starring Michael Keaton and Kelly Preston. Keaton stars as the title character, a man who dies in a car accident and comes back to life as a snowman...
. She contributed to the score of the Edward Burns
Edward Burns
Edward Fitzgerald Burns is an American actor, film producer, writer and director.-Early life:Burns was born in Woodside, Queens, New York, the son of Molly , a federal agency manager, and Edward J. Burns, a public relations spokesman and police officer. He was raised a Roman Catholic...
/Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...
film She's the One
She's the One
She's the One is a 1996 comedy-drama film, and the second feature film to be written and directed by New York actor and director Edward Burns...
(1996), as well as several films with Hans Zimmer
Hans Zimmer
Hans Florian Zimmer is a German film composer and music producer. He has composed music for over 100 films, including critically acclaimed film scores for The Lion King , Crimson Tide , The Thin Red Line , Gladiator , The Dark Knight and Inception .Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the...
, including Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
Haydn won a fellowship to the Sundance Film Institute
Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute is a non-profit organization founded by Robert Redford in 1981 that actively advances the work of filmmakers and storytellers worldwide...
composing in 2009, and has composed the film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
s for three films, Jacklight, The Horse Boy (premiered at Sundance Film Festival
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
and released in 2009 by Zeitgeist Films), and "The Lightmaker".
In 2008, Haydn accompanied Roger Waters
Roger Waters
George Roger Waters is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. He was a founding member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, serving as bassist and co-lead vocalist. Following the departure of bandmate Syd Barrett in 1968, Waters became the band's lyricist, principal songwriter...
at the Coachella music festival
Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival is a three-day annual music and arts festival, organized by Goldenvoice and held at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, in the Inland Empire's Coachella Valley...
when they played "Dark Side of the Moon".
Haydn also performed on Cyndi Lauper
Cyndi Lauper
Cynthia Ann Stephanie "Cyndi" Lauper is an American singer, songwriter, actress and LGBT rights activist. She achieved success in the mid-1980s with the release of the album She's So Unusual and became the first female singer to have four top-five singles released from one album...
's True Colors Tour 2008. That same year she appeared on the cable TV series, Californication
Californication (TV series)
Californication is an American comedy-drama that premiered on Showtime on August 13, 2007. The show was created by Tom Kapinos. The protagonist, Hank Moody , is a troubled novelist whose move to California, coupled with his writer's block, complicates his relationships with his longtime girlfriend...
.
Affiliations
A social activist, Lili also performs regularly for various human rights organizations, including Amnesty International, Operation USA, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights Action Center; and her song “Unfolding Grace” appears on a CD compilation with U2 and Sting which benefits Aung San Suu KyiAung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi, AC is a Burmese opposition politician and the General Secretary of the National League for Democracy. In the 1990 general election, her National League for Democracy party won 59% of the national votes and 81% of the seats in Parliament. She had, however, already been detained...
and the Burmese pro-democracy movement.
Discography
- LiliLili (album)Lili is the debut album by violinist/vocalist Lili Haydn. It was released in 1997 by Atlantic Records.-Track listing:# Stranger 4:58# Someday 4:01# Real 4:04...
(1997) Atlantic RecordsAtlantic RecordsAtlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
) - Light Blue SunLight Blue SunLight Blue Sun is the second album by violinist/vocalist Lili Haydn. It was released in 2003 by BMG Music.-Track listing:# Light Blue Sun 2:44# Come Here 5:34...
(2003) BMGBMGBertelsmann Music Group, , was a division of Bertelsmann before its completion of sale of the majority of its assets to Japan's Sony Corporation of America on October 1, 2008. It was established in 1987 to combine the music label activities of Bertelsmann...
/Private MusicPrivate MusicPrivate Music is a United States record company founded in 1984 by experimental musician Peter Baumann, as a home for instrumental music. Initially signing such artists as Yanni, Suzanne Ciani, Patrick O'Hearn, and Baumann's former bandmates Tangerine Dream, the record label specialized in New Age... - Goodbye Stranger Ep (2007) NettwerkNettwerkThe Nettwerk Music Group is the umbrella company for Nettwerk Management, Nettwerk Records, Nettwerk One Publishing, Nutone Records, and Artwerk. With over 150 employees, the Vancouver-based company has offices in New York, Los Angeles, London, Boston, Nashville, and Hamburg...
Music Group) - Place Between Places (2008) Nettwerk Music Group)