CONNECT WITH THE SYMPHONY!

VIVIANE AND NICOLE HAGNER PERFORM SCHUBERT
A Chamber Music Series Concert
Tuesday, January 8, 2013, 7:30pm
The Auditorium of TSRI (formerly The Neurosciences Institute)

Special Guests: Viviane Hagner, violin; Nicole Hagner, piano

Kathryn Hatmaker, violin
Anna Skálová, violin
Chia-Ling Chien, cello

BARTÓK: Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin and Piano
LISZT: Grand Duo concertant sur la Romance de "Le Marin," S. 128
SCHUBERT: Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major for Piano, Violin and Cello, D. 898

Celebrated violinist Viviane Hagner is joined by pianist Nicole Hagner with members of the San Diego Symphony for an incredible evening of chamber music classics. Music from Hungary and Austria’s most famous composers grace the stage including Bartók’s Rhapsody No. 1 for Violin and Piano, Liszt’s Grand Duo concertant, and Schubert’s widely popular Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major.

  The San Diego Symphony Chamber Music Series is underwritten by Sam B. Ersan.

Born in Munich, violinist Viviane Hagner has won exceptional praise for her highly intelligent musicality and passionate artistry. Ms. Hagner performs with "poise and magnificent assurance" (The Times/London) and "an almost hauntingly masterful display of technique and artistry" (Washington Post). As a musician of tremendous depth and integrity, Ms. Hagner has championed new works by Unsuk Chin and Simon Holt, while breathing new life into a diverse and vast range of repertoire. Bringing her own unique sensibility to performances, she has proven herself an artist of incredible agility on the stages of the greatest concert halls in the world. Her engagements and re-engagements continue to highlight her demand as orchestral soloist, recitalist and chamber music collaborator.

Since making her international debut 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 – Viviane Hagner has become known for her substantial and beautiful sound as well as her thoughtful interpretations. She has appeared with the world's great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Pittsburgh Symphony, Munich Philharmonic and Philharmonia, in partnership with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Ricardo Chailly, Pinchas Zukerman, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Christoph Eschenbach, Kent Nagano and David Zinman. Recent concert highlights include her debut with the Cleveland Orchestra, appearances with the Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra, as well as a North American tour and Carnegie Hall appearance with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

This season’s engagements include performances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the MDR Sinfonieorchester Leipzig, as well as repeat performances of Unsuk Chin’s Violin Concerto with Philharmonia Orchestra at the Edinburgh International Festival and Beethovenfest, Bonn; on tour she visits Korea with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie and Spain with the Munich Chamber Orchestra alongside Marie-Elisabeth Hecker and Martin Helmchen. Ms. Hagner will perform recitals in New York, Tokyo and Philadelphia.

A committed chamber musician, Viviane Hagner has been a featured artist at renowned American and international festivals such as Schleswig-Holstein, Salzburg Easter Festival, Marlboro, Ravinia, Santa Fe and Mostly Mozart; and has appeared at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Barcelona's Palau de la Musica, Berlin Konzerthaus, Köln Philharmonie, London's Wigmore and Queen Elizabeth Halls and New York's 92nd Street Y series.

As well as bringing insight and virtuosity to the core concerto repertoire, Viviane Hagner is an ardent advocate of new, neglected and undiscovered music. Composers whose work she champions include Sofia Gubaidulina, Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Witold Lutoslawski. In 2002 she gave the world premiere of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto with the Deutsche Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin and Kent Nagano, later playing the work in the United States – an event which prompted The San Francisco Chronicle to rave her performance was "vibrant, warm-toned and jaw-droppingly precise [and] may well be unimprovable." After her 2006 premiere of Simon Holt's new Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by Jonathan Nott, The Sunday Times critic remarked she "caught the music's soul."

The Hyperion label has issued her performances of the Vieuxtemps Violin Concerti 4 and 5, and the Canadian company Analekta has recently released her recording of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto with Kent Nagano and the Orchestra Symphonique de Montréal. Her first solo recording on the Altara label features works by Bartók, Hartmann and Bach.

Viviane Hagner plays the Sasserno Stradivarius built in 1717, generously loaned to her by the Nippon Music Foundation. Ms. Hagner was a 2000 winner of the Young Concert Artists International auditions and in 2004 was awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

Nicole Hagner started her piano and violin lessons at age five and was soon after accepted on both instruments at UdK Berlin's Julius-Stern-Institut for exceptionally talented young students. She won first prize at the nationwide "Jugend musiziert" competition on both violin and piano.

After graduating from high-school, she studied piano with Klaus Hellwig in Berlin and later with Hans Leygraf  in Salzburg. She has since been invited to perform as soloist with the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Michel Plasson, with the Polish Chamber Orchestra conducted by Wojciech Rajski and with Württembergischen Staatsorchester Stuttgart under Lothar Zagrosek.

Nicole Hagner regularly performs as soloist as well as in recital and chamber music at venues including Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie Berlin, Victoria Hall Geneve, Chatelet Paris as well as in North and South America. She is also a frequent guest at festivals such as  Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rheingau-Musikfestival, Schwetzinger Festspiele, Moritzburg Festival, the Mostly Mozart-Festival in New York and at Ravinia Festival, Illinois.

EMI Classics has released a debut CD featuring a recital program with her sister, violinist Viviane Hagner. A second CD on Victor Classics has been released featuring her with flutist Kaori Fujii and oboist Albrecht Mayer.