Clemens Hagen

Cellist Clemens Hagen comes from a family of musicians in Salzburg and began playing the cello at the age of six. Two years later he began his studies at the Mozarteum University and later switched to the Basel Conservatory. His teachers include Wilfried Tachezi and Heinrich Schiff. In addition to numerous first prizes, in 1983 he received the special prize of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Dr. Karl Boehm Prize. As a soloist, Clemens Hagen has performed with internationally renowned orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Camerata Salzburg, the German Chamber Philharmonic Bremen, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the SWR Freiburg, the Cleveland Orchestra and the NHK Orchestra Tokyo under conductors such as N. Harnoncourt, C. Abbado, F. Welser-Möst, I. Metzmacher, S. Végh, D. Harding, Z. Kocsis and S. Cambreling. There are live CD recordings of the Brahms double concerto with Kremer, Harnoncourt / Concertgebouw Amsterdam and the Beethoven triple concerto with Zehetmair, Aimard, Harnoncourt and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Clemens Hagen has recorded all of Beethoven's works for cello and piano with Paul Gulda. He has recorded all of Robert Schumann's works for cello and piano with Stefan Vladar. On his latest CD, Clemens Hagen plays Josef Haydn's Cello Concerto in C major. Clemens Hagen considers chamber music to be an essential addition to his solo activities – the first to be mentioned is the Hagen Quartet, with whom he has performed worldwide for over 35 years and with whom he has recorded over 45 CDs for Deutsche Grammophon. Other chamber music partners are G. Kremer, R. Capucon, L. Kavakos, M. Vengerov. C. Tetzlaff, Y. Wang,  E. Kissin, M Uchida, M Argerich, H Grimaud, K Gerstein, S Vladar, LO Andsnes, and S Meyer. In 2003, C. Abbado invited Clemens Hagen to his newly founded Lucerne Festival Orchestra, of which he is still a member today. From the 2018/19 season, Clemens Hagen will be the cellist of the Vienna Piano Trio. Clemens Hagen has been teaching violoncello and chamber music at the Mozarteum University since 1988, where he was H. Schiff's assistant in the early years. In 2002 he habilitated at the Mozarteum University and since 2003 he has been a professor at this institution. Clemens Hagen plays a cello made by Antonius Stradivarius in 1698.