Veronika Hagen (born 5 May 1963, in Salzburg) is an Austrian violist.
Born in Salzburg, Hagen began to learn music at the age of six with her father, who was at that time concertmaster of the Mozarteum Orchestra of Salzburg. She then continued her studies at the Musik Hochschule of Salzburg with Helmut Zehetmair and at the Musik Hochschule of Hanover with Hatto Beyerle. During her studies she won several prizes, including the Budapest International Viola Competition in 1984. [1]
Hagen is a founding member of the Hagen Quartet, along with her siblings Lukas, Angelika (later replaced by Rainer Schmidt) and Clemens. The quartet has performed across the world. [2]
Among a number of recordings for the Deutsche Grammophon label, Hagen collaborated with the pianist Paul Gulda on the Brahms Sonatas in 1997 and, with the violinist Augustin Dumay and the Salzburg Camerata, on Mozart's Concertante. As well as her activity as a soloist, she has performed with other leading musicians, including Elena Bashkirova, Joshua Bell, Gérard Caussé, Ivry Gitlis, Paul Gulda, Tatjana Grindenko, Steven Isserlis, Gidon Kremer, Alexander Lonquich and Heinrich Schiff. She has also played at many international music festivals, and has performed with orchestras such as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. [3]
Deutsche Grammophon is a German classical music record label that was the precursor of the corporation PolyGram. Headquartered in Berlin Friedrichshain, it is now part of Universal Music Group (UMG) since its merger with the UMG family of labels in 1999. Deutsche Grammophon is the world's oldest surviving established record company. Presidents of the company are Frank Briegmann, Chairman and CEO Central Europe of Universal Music Group and Clemens Trautmann.
Thomas Quasthoff is a German bass-baritone. Quasthoff has a range of musical interest from Bach cantatas, to lieder, and solo jazz improvisations. Born with severe birth defects caused by thalidomide, Quasthoff is 1.34 m, and has phocomelia.
Cheryl Studer is an American dramatic soprano who has sung at many of the world's foremost opera houses. Studer has performed more than eighty roles ranging from the dramatic repertoire to roles more commonly associated with lyric sopranos and coloratura sopranos, and, in her late stage, mezzo-sopranos. She is particularly known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner.
The Hagen Quartet is an Austrian string quartet founded in 1981 by four siblings, Lukas, Angelika, Veronika and Clemens, in Salzburg. The quartet members are teachers and mentors at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Hochschule für Musik Basel. The ensemble made its Salzburg Festival debut in 1984. The complete recordings of the Mozart string quartets were released in 2006. In the 2012–2013 season, the Hagen Quartet performed the complete Beethoven cycle in New York, Tokyo, Paris, London, Salzburg and Vienna. They performed, between December 2013 and August 2017, on the four famous Stradivarius instruments played previously by the Paganini Quartet, the Cleveland String Quartet, and the Tokyo String Quartet, respectively. Those instruments are now being played by the Quartetto di Cremona.
Elisabeth Batiashvili, professionally known as Lisa Batiashvili, is a prominent Georgian violinist active across Europe and the United States. A former New York Philharmonic artist-in-residence, she is acclaimed for her "natural elegance, silky sound and the meticulous grace of her articulation". Batiashvili makes frequent appearances at high-profile international events; she was the violin soloist at the 2018 Nobel Prize concert.
Tabea Zimmermann is a German violist who has performed internationally, both as a soloist and a chamber musician. She has been artist in residence of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2004, Zimmermann founded the Arcanto Quartet, a string quartet that performed until 2016. Several composers have written music for her, including György Ligeti, and she has made her own version of Bartók's Viola Concerto from the composer's sketches.
Ivan Podyomov is a Russian oboist and currently principal oboe of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Siegfried Palm was a German cellist who is known worldwide for his interpretations of contemporary music. Many 20th-century composers like Kagel, Ligeti, Xenakis, Penderecki and Zimmermann wrote music for him. He was also Rektor of the Hochschule für Musik Köln and Intendant of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Leonard Hokanson was an American pianist who achieved prominence in Europe as a soloist and chamber musician.
Annette Dasch is a German soprano. She performs in operas and concerts.
Marga Schiml is a German opera singer who sings mezzo-soprano and alto. She has appeared at major European opera houses and festivals, such as the Vienna State Opera, the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Hamburg State Opera and La Scala, at the Salzburg Festival and the Bayreuth Festival. She is also an academic voice teacher.
Constanze Backes is a classically trained German soprano in opera and concert. She has toured throughout Europe and performed in many classical genres but over the last few years has focused primarily on Early music. In addition she teaches children music technique and has translated musical works.
Stephen Goss is a Welsh composer, guitarist and academic. His compositional output includes orchestral and choral works, chamber music, and solo pieces. His music draws freely on a number of styles and genres. He is particularly known for his guitar music, which is widely performed and recorded.
Anatol Ugorski was a Russian-born German classical pianist and academic teacher. He studied at the Leningrad Conservatory, and played works by controversial Western composers such as Schoenberg, Alban Berg, Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez rather than the usual repertoire for Russian pianists. An incident at a concert of Boulez in 1968 made Soviet authorities doubt his political reliability, and they largely interrupted his career for more than ten years. In 1982, he became professor at the Leningrad Conservatory. When his daughter suffered antisemitic harassment in 1990, the family fled to East Berlin, where they lived in a refugee camp for several months. Irene Dische managed to arrange for him to record Beethoven's Diabelli Variations for Deutsche Grammophon in 1991, which launched a career of performing and recording. He became professor of the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, remaining in the post until 2007.
Antje Weithaas is a German classical violinist. Apart from solo recitals and chamber music performances, she has played with leading orchestras in Europe, Asia and the United States.
The Fauré Quartet is a German piano quartet, named after Gabriel Fauré. Founded in 1995, they have performed internationally and recorded, including works written for them by composers such as Volker David Kirchner and Toshio Hosokawa.
Dirk Mommertz is a German pianist and chamber musician.
Barbara Buntrock is a German violist and music educator.
Lukas Johannes Hagen is an Austrian violinist and music educator.
Giedrė Šlekytė is a Lithuanian conductor, who works in Europe with a focus on opera. After she was one of three conductors for the Young Conductor Award of the Salzburg Festival in 2015, she worked at the Stadttheater Klagenfurt for two seasons. She conducted Schreker's Die Gezeichneten at the Opernhaus Zürich, and Poulenc's Dialogues des Carmélites at the Oper Frankfurt in 2021.