Profile

Twenty-three-year-old violinist William Hagen is the third prize winner of the 2015 Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition (the highest ranking American since 1980). Having captured the attention of the Belgian press and public during the competition, William has been hailed as a “brilliant virtuoso…a standout” (The Dallas Morning News) with “an intellectual command of line and score, and just the right amount of power” (violinist.com) who “plays with an obvious and sincere love for the very act of music making” (North Texas Performing Arts News). Already a seasoned performer on concert stages around the United States and abroad, William’s 2015–16 season includes his Tokyo recital debut and recitals in Brussels, Los Angeles and various cities in Florida. He also makes his Bulgarian debut with the Sofia Philharmonic, performs with Gidon Kremer, Christian Tetzlaff, and Steven Isserlis as part of the Chamber Music Connects the World festival at the Kronberg Academy (Germany) and appears as soloist with the Jacksonville and Shreveport symphony orchestras, among other. During the summer of 2016, William makes his recital debut at the Colmar Festival (France) and returns to the Utah Symphony (Deer Valley Music Festival) and the Aspen Music Festival where he performs both as chamber musician and soloist with the Aspen Philharmonic conducted by Ludovic Morlot.

Since his professional debut at age nine with the Utah Symphony and Keith Lockhart conducting, William has performed with conductors Marin Alsop, Christian Arming, Placido Domingo, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Fabio Mechetti, Ward Stare, Michel Tabachnik, Arie van Beek, and Hugh Wolff; and with the symphony orchestras of Albany, Buffalo, Fort Worth, Jacksonville, St. Louis, Utah, and with the Aspen Philharmonic at the Aspen Music Festival. Abroad, he has performed with the Brussels Philharmonic, the National Orchestra of Belgium, the ORF Radio-Sinfonieorchester and with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liege in a tour of Belgium. He has also performed in Japan with the Yokohama Sinfonietta and the Sendai Philharmonic. 

Active and enthusiastic as a chamber musician, William has performed on the Colburn Chamber Music Society series and at the Aspen Music Festival with artists such as Veronika Eberle, Narek Hakhnazaryan, Edgar Meyer, Steven Osborne, Orli Shaham, Robert Spano and Joaquin Valdepeñas. William has also had the privilege of performing Mozart’s Sonata K. 454 with pianist Menahem Pressler in Los Angeles. This season, William performs with the Jupiter Chamber Players in New York City. 

A native of Utah, William first heard the violin at the age of 3 and began lessons at the age of 4. At age 10, he entered the studio of Robert Lipsett at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, commuting to Los Angeles every week for lessons. After studying with Itzhak Perlman at the Juilliard School for two years, William returned to Los Angeles in 2012 to continue studying with Robert Lipsett at the Colburn Conservatory of Music. He is an alumnus of the Verbier Academy and the Perlman Music Program, and spent many summers at the Aspen Music Festival and School. William plays on an Andrea Guarneri violin (Cremona, c. 1675.)