Hilary Hahn

Alhough they make exceptions for pop princesses, teen audiences usually ignore their prodigious peers. As an Onion headline declared, "Best Opera Singer of Her Generation Unknown to Her Generation." Hilary Hahn, a 24-year-old Virginia native, won't be touring malls anytime soon, but the virtuoso violinist has reached the mainstream-movie masses (her soloist work drove the spooky score to The Village) and the indie-rock fringes (through her collaborations with And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead). Hahn, a wholesome beauty with flowing, first-season-of-Felicity tresses, often opts for graceful restraint in her interpretations, though she irked some traditionalists with her ultraquick Bach concertos on a 2003 album. Live, her flashy fingerwork can be so mesmerizing that even purists forget to protest.