Classical music’s most extreme hipster reinvents himself with a striking new stage name.

He already had an exotic, double-barrelled name that wouldn’t seem out of place alongside Björk, Madonna, Rihanna or Lady Gaga – and a daring performance style and aesthetic to match. But the classical chameleon formerly known as Hahn-Bin has changed his name to Amadeus Leopold in a bid to pay tribute to his violin idols.

“Amadeus Leopold is the name I have chosen for my American citizenship, while Hahn-Bin is my given Korean name,” the New Yorker explained.

A kind of David Bowie of the classical music world and an underground fashion icon, the 25-year-old told Limelight that his new stage name reflects his “marriage and commitment to the new golden era of music – one where there is no boundary between what is classical and what is pop.

“We are very near that golden era of music; one that is reminiscent of the days when Liszt and Kreisler, Rachmaninov and Mozart himself, were the rockstars of their day. My role in this world is to embody the renaissance of classical music itself; I wanted to make that message clear to the world.”

Following in the...