Born into a Lutheran family, Hahn moved to Baltimore, Maryland at the age of three and began playing the violin one month before her fourth birthday in the Suzuki Program of Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory (Sony Bio).

Hahn became interested in the violin after taking a walk with her father in their Baltimore neighborhood (Zaustinsky 1999). The two passed a branch of the Peabody Conservatory that advertised music lessons for four-year-olds and observed a music lesson where a young boy was playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Hahn began taking lessons the following week and participated in a Suzuki class for about a year. Hahn’s first solo recital occurred when she was nine and included a Handel Sonata, the "Siciliano" and Presto from J.S.Bach’s unaccompanied Sonata in G Minor, the Wieniawski Caprice in A Minor, the Vitali Chaconne, Glière Romance, and other short pieces (Zaustinsky 1999). Between 1984 and 1989 Hahn studied in Baltimore under the direction of Klara Berkovich. In 1990, at the age of ten, Hahn was admitted to the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia where she became a student of Jascha Brodsky. Hahn studied with Brodsky for seven years and learned the etudes of Kreutzer, Sevcik, Gaviniès, Rode, as well as the Paganini Caprices. She also learned about twenty-eight violin concertos, recital programs, and several other short pieces (Zaustinsky 1999).

Hahn’s first two years at Curtis were spent commuting twice a week to and from Philadelphia and Baltimore while being home-schooled (Zaustinsky 1999). In 1991, Hahn made her first major orchestral debut with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Soon thereafter, Hahn debuted with the Philadelphia Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the New York Philharmonic. In 1992, she began working towards the Curtis Bachelor’s degree at the age of twelve while taking college courses to fulfill her high school requirements.

In 1995 Hahn made her international debut in Germany with a performance of the Beethoven Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D Major with Lorin Maazel and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. The concert was broadcast on radio and television throughout Europe. A year later, Hahn debuted at Carnegie Hall in New York as a soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra.

By the age of sixteen, Hahn had completed the Curtis Institute’s university requirements, but elected to remain at the Institute for several more years to pursue additional elective courses in literature and languages such as western civilization, poetry writing, fiction writing, English, and German (Zaustinksy 1999). During this time she regularly coached violin with Jaime Laredo, and studied chamber music with Felix Galimir and Gary Graffman. While at Curtis, Hahn studied musical subjects such as counterpoint, solfège, harmonic theory, music history, elementary composition and conducting (PBS Interview). However, in an interview with PBS in December 2001, Hahn stated that of all the musical disciplines, she is the most interested in musical performance (PBS Interview). In May of 1999, Hahn graduated from Curtis with a bachelor of music degree.

Hahn has played with orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, just to name a few.