Viviane Hagner

Munich-born violinist Viviane Hagner has won exceptional praise for her highly intelligent musicality and passionate artistry. Typical comments from critics include ‘poise and magnificent assurance’ (The Times) and ‘a spine-chilling recital, an almost hauntingly masterful display of technique and artistry’ (Washington Post), while the Berliner Morgenpost wrote: ‘Listening to Viviane Hagner play the violin is an enchanting experience… she is both a thoughtful and brilliant violinist. In her playing, she knows how to combine reflection and luminosity in the most striking way.’

Since making her international début at the age of 12, and a year later participating in the legendary ‘joint concert’ of the Israel and Berlin Philharmonics (conducted by Zubin Mehta in Tel Aviv), Viviane Hagner has acquired a depth and maturity in her playing that is reflected in her serene stage presence. She has appeared with the world’s great orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Berlin, the Czech Philharmonic, the Bavarian State Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, in partnership with conductors such as Abbado, Ashkenazy, Barenboim and Eschenbach. Recent concert highlights include performances of the Brahms Double Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, and the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with Pinchas Zukerman and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, as well as recitals in New York, Washington and Boston

As well as bringing insight and virtuosity to the central concerto repertoire, Viviane Hagner is an ardent advocate of new, neglected and undiscovered music. Composers whose work she champions include Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Karl Goldmark and Krzysztof Penderecki. In 2002 she gave the world première of Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto with the Deutsche Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin and Kent Nagano, later taking the work to the US. After the première of Simon Holt’s new Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Jonathan Nott in 2006, The Sunday Times critic wrote that she ‘caught the music’s soul.’

A committed chamber musician, she has performed at renowned international festivals including Salzburg Easter Festival, Schleswig-Holstein, Marlboro, Ravinia and New York’s Mostly Mozart.

This season her busy schedule takes her to Asia, Europe, South America and the USA. Next seasons’

highlights include performances with the New York Philharmonic under Maazel, Montreal Symphony Orchestra under Nagano and Boston Symphony Orchestra with Dutoit. She has been invited by the Konzerthaus Berlin to be their Artist in Residence in 2007/08.

Her first solo recording on the Altara label (Bartok, Hartmann and Bach) has just been released.

Viviane Hagner plays the Sasserno Stradivarius built in 1717, generously loaned to her by the Nippon Music Foundation.