Born in Munich, violinist Viviane Hagner has won exceptional praise for her highly intelligent musicality and passionate artistry. Ms. Hagner performs with "poise and magnificent assurance" (The Times/London) and "an almost hauntingly masterful display of technique and artistry" (Washington Post), while the Berliner Morgenpost wrote: "Listening to Viviane Hagner play the violin is an enchanting experience...she is both a thoughtful and brilliant violinist. In her playing, she knows how to combine reflection and luminosity in the most striking way."

Since making her international debut at the age of 12-and a year later participating in the legendary joint concert of the Israel and Berlin Philharmonics, conducted by Zubin Mehta-Viviane Hagner has become known for her substantial and beautiful sound as well as her thoughtful interpretations. She has appeared with the world's great orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Berlin, Czech Philharmonic, and Bavarian State Orchestra, in partnership with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Ricardo Chailly and Christoph Eschenbach. Recent concert highlights include appearances with the New York Philharmonic led by Lorin Maazel, the Boston Symphony and Charles Dutoit, the Detroit Symphony and Jiri Belohlávek, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra led by Pinchas Zukerman and the Milwaukee Symphony led by Olari Elts. European highlights include the Munich Philharmonic with Hugh Wolff, the Philharmonia Orchestra with Alexander Briger and a tour with the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra and Mario Venzago. She has also appeared several times at London's Wigmore Hall-joining Stephen Kovacevich for the pianist's three-concert Brahms/Bartók residency, in a concert marking the centenary of Messiaen and also for a special performance celebrating Elliott Carter's centenary.

Ms. Hagner's 2009-2010 season includes her subscription debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performing Mendelssohn conducted by Markus Stenz, as well as her debut performances with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra led by Ludavic Morlot. She will also be heard in recital with pianist, Shai Wosner at the Washington Performing Arts Society in works by Bartók, Turnage, Schubert and Schumann. Abroad, she will perform in Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, with whom she will also appear on tour in Europe. In addition, she will perform the complete cycle of Ysaÿe Sonatas at the Auditorium du Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and will give recitals at London's Wigmore Hall and Tokyo's Kioi Hall.

Ms. Hagner's engagements have included many special collaborations: the Brahms Double Concerto with Yo-Yo Ma and Canada's National Arts Centre Orchestra, and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante with Pinchas Zukerman and the Pittsburgh, Seattle and Dallas Symphony Orchestras. In June 2007, Ms. Hagner stepped in at the last minute to perform the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Riccardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig. Following the performance, she was immediately engaged to tour with them to the Salle Pleyel in Paris and the BBC Proms in London.

A committed chamber musician, Viviane Hagner has been a featured artist at renowned American and international festivals, including Schleswig-Holstein, Salzburg Easter, Marlboro, Ravinia, Santa Fe, and Mostly Mozart; and has appeared at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Barcelona's Palau de la Musica, Berlin Konzerthaus, Köln Philharmonie, and London's Wigmore Hall. Viviane Hagner is the Artist in Residence at the 2009 Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival.

As well as bringing insight and virtuosity to the core concerto repertoire, Viviane Hagner is an ardent advocate of new, neglected and undiscovered music. Composers whose work she champions include Sofia Gubaidulina, Karl Amadeus Hartmann and Witold Lutoslawski. In 2002 she gave the world premiere of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto with the Deutsche Sinfonie-Orchester Berlin and Kent Nagano, later playing the work in the United States-an event that prompted The San Francisco Chronicle to rave her performance was "vibrant, warm-toned and jaw-droppingly precise [and] may well be unimprovable." After her 2006 premiere of Simon Holt's new Violin Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra led by Jonathan Nott, The Sunday Times critic remarked she "caught the music's soul."

The Hyperion label has recorded her performances of the Vieuxtemps Violin Concerti 4 & 5 with the Royal Flanders Philharmonic and Martyn Brabbins for release in spring 2010, and the Canadian company Analekta has recently released her recording of Unsuk Chin's Violin Concerto with Kent Nagano and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Her first solo recording on the Altara label features works by Bartók, Hartmann and Bach.

Viviane Hagner plays the Sasserno Stradivarius built in 1717, generously loaned to her by the Nippon Music Foundation. Ms. Hagner was a 2000 winner of the Young Concert Artists International auditions and in 2004 she was awarded the Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award.

Program

SCHREKER Scherzo for Strings
BEETHOVEN Romance No. 2 in F Major
VIEUXTEMPS Violin Concerto No. 5 in A minor
ALEX MINCEK Pendulum IX: "Machina/Humana" (Project 440 World Premiere)
MOZART Symphony No. 40 in G minor

All music, it can be said, is an extension of the human voice. For Franz Schreker, an Austrian composer of the early 20th century, a passion for opera colored the lush and melodious Intermezzo and Scherzo. This performance of Beethoven's Romance No. 2, an elegant piece that displays the iconic composer's lyrical side, features the Orpheus debut of German violinist Viviane Hagner. Hagner also performs Vieuxtemps' Violin Concerto No. 5, a virtuoso tour-de-force in the grand Romantic tradition made famous by legendary violinists like Eugène Ysaÿe and Jascha Heifetz. The young composer Alex Mincek, providing the last of the commissioned works for Project 440, has a voice for the 21st century, one that teems with surprising patterns and refractions. The Carnegie Hall season concludes with the most innately vocal composer of all, Mozart. Orpheus brings to life his famed Symphony No. 40, a thrilling masterwork that speaks as pure music.

Alex Mincek's new piece is a Project 440 Commission. Project 440 is a collaboration between Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and WQXR. Project 440 is supported by a leadership gift from an anonymous donor, with additional major support provided by Thomas Bishop and the Baisley Powell Elebash Fund.