Keywords Violinists

For her debut 4 Nov 1956 with the New York Philharmonic under Dimitri Mitropoulos, Hagen performed Lalo's Symphonic espagnole. Appearances followed with the Cleveland Orchestra, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the (Amsterdam) Concergebouw Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, and the Orchestre de la Suisse romande. Though living in New York, she had made seven concert and recital tours in Europe by 1960 and performed in Canada on the CBC, in recital, with the CBC Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Mayer at the Stratford Festival (21 Aug 1957), and with the Vancouver International Festival Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan (13 Jul 1959). She was a finalist (seventh place) in the 1962 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. In 1964 she toured western Canada for the JMC (YMC).

Review of 1974 Performance
Though she performed less often after the mid-1960s, Hagen appeared at Expo 67 and in 1974 gave the 400th concert in the history of Hart House, University of Toronto (she had given the 300th in 1960). Of her performance in Mozart's Concerto in D, K218, at a concert in Eaton Auditorium in honour of Géza de Kresz, Kenneth Winters wrote: 'Miss Hagen's immaculate classical style produced music of marmoreal firmness, smoothness and elegance, with again that wonderful level, nourished tone in the slow movement and phrasing of rare cogency' (Toronto Telegram, 21 Nov 1969).

Performances and Teaching Positions 1970-2004
In the 1970s she devoted herself mainly to private teaching and coaching chamber ensembles in New York, specializing in teenage students. She was a member of the Westchester String Quartet and the Ermelin Piano Trio, served as concertmaster 1975-84 of the Westchester Symphony Orchestra, all in Westchester, NY; then was concertmaster 1985-90 of the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra (and again from 2000-04) and, beginning in 1990, of the Orange County Chamber Orchestra.

Hagen resumed her concert career 31 May 1981 with a performance at New York's Kauffman Hall. She gave recitals in Montreal, Edmonton, and Toronto in 1982, accompanied by pianist Arthur Rowe, and appeared as a recitalist and soloist with orchestras in Alberta and Ontario. Hagen and Rowe (later replaced by the US pianist Todd Crow), together with the violist Ralph Aldrich and the cellist Malcolm Tait, formed the Hart Piano Quartet in January 1985 (it was the first chamber group to perform in the newly opened Thunder Bay Community Auditorium), which was active until 1989. In 1985, Hagen was appointed a professor of violin at Vassar College, and concurrently commuted to the University of Western Ontario, where she taught violin 1985-9. She remained at Vassar as of 2004, and performed in the northeastern USA and Europe with the Tourmaline String Quartet (from 1999), the Vassar Piano Trio, the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, and other orchestras of the northeastern USA.

Author R. Dale McIntosh, Betty Nygaard King

Discography

Beethoven - Papineau-Couture - Brahms (arr Joachim) - Szymanowsky. Newmark piano. 1967. CBC EXPO-29/RCI 245/(Papineau-Couture) 6-ACM 4

Bibliography

Ness, Margaret. 'Singing fingers,' SatN, 23 Feb 1952