BIO

Daron Hagen was born in Milwaukee in 1961 and has been a New Yorker since 1984. A full-time composer of opera and concert music, he divides his time between family and composing. One of America’s most versatile, prolific, and respected opera composers, all eight of his major operas are currently in production or revival somewhere in the U.S., Europe, or Asia.

Mr. Hagen has collaborated with distinguished musicians such as Leonard Bernstein, JoAnn Falletta, Gary Graffman, Nathan Gunn, Jaime Laredo, Gerard Schwarz, Leonard Slatkin, and Robert Spano, among others. His work has been widely commissioned and performed by most of North America’s major musical institutions, and numerous institutions abroad, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Seattle Symphony, American Composers Orchestra, Curtis Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, the Orchestra of the Swan (UK), Seattle Opera, Opera Theater of Ireland, as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre, the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (Beijing), and the Royal Albert Hall.

His music (he has served frequently as conductor and collaborative pianist for recordings of his works) can be heard on the Albany, Arsis, Bridge, Clarion, Klavier, Naxos, and New World/CRI labels, among others.

Among other honors, he has received the Kennedy Center Friedheim Prize, two Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowships, and the Seattle Opera Chairman’s Award. He has taught at Bard College, the Curtis Institute of Music, and the Princeton Atelier, and fulfilled numerous composer-in-residencies around the U.S. He is a Lifetime Member of the Corporation of Yaddo, former president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, and a Trustee of the Douglas Moore Fund for American Opera.

A complete list of his over 200 art songs, song cycles, and choral works, eight operas, four symphonies, twelve concerti, and over forty chamber works may be found, along with information about upcoming performances and premieres, at his website.

Follow this link to view Seattle Opera's Amelia Overview.

Profile photograph by Ric Kallaher.

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