Portrait
Biography
Violinist Kathrin ten Hagen played her debut with the Nürnberger Symphoniker at the age of 14. Since then, she has appeared with the Deutsche Symphonieorchester Berlin, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the KlassikPhilharmonie Hamburg and the Jenaer Philharmoniker, among many others. Her recent performances in the US include concerts at Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall, Jordan Hall, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and Old South Meeting House in Boston as well as the California Center for the Arts. Ms. ten Hagen has been invited to play at renowned festivals such as the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Zermatt Festival Switzerland, the Holland International Music Sessions, the Yellow Barn Festival Vermont/USA and the Zermatt-Festival Switzerland, where she worked together with the Scharoun Ensemble of the Berliner Philharmoniker.
In September 2009, Kathrin ten Hagen won the first prize at the Donald Portnoy International Violin Competition in Augusta/Georgia. She was also the first prize winner at the California International Young Artists Competition 2007 in Escondido/San Diego, the International Wolfgang Marschner Competition 2005, the Ibolyka Gyarfas Competition 2002 and the German Youth Competition Jugend musiziert 1998. Her other awards include prizes at the Ruggiero Ricci Competition and the International Max-Rostal-Competition. At the age of 14, she won the second prize and the Mozart-prize at the International Yfrah-Neaman-Competition as well as the second prize at the Jakob-Stainer-Competition. In addition, she has received awards such as the Ottilie-Selbach-Redslob scholarship and the Gerd Bucerius scholarship from the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben.
As an enthusiastic chamber musician, Ms. ten Hagen won prizes in several string quartet competitions like the International Max-Reger-Competition 2006 and the Raiffeisen-Classic-Competition 2005. She is a member of the Foundation Villa Musica, where she performed together with pianist Silke Avenhaus and cellists Quirine Viersen and Gustav Rivinius. Committed to reaching new audiences, Ms. Ten Hagen has presented community performances through Yehudi Menuhin’s foundation Live Music Now as well as the Community Performances and Partnerships program at the New England Conservatory.
Ms. Ten Hagen is also a passionate interpreter of modern and lesser known compositions. Next to the standard repertoire, she plays a broad range of contemporary works by composers such as Carter, Henze, Lutoslawski, Marschner, Stockhausen, Widmann, Yun and Zimmermann. In the Ruggiero Ricci Competition 2007 she received the modern music prize for the interpretation of “Etude IV” by Jörg Widmann.
Before moving to the USA, Kathrin ten Hagen studied with Antje Weithaas at the Universität der Künste Berlin and with Igor Ozim at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. As a scholarship holder of the DAAD she has been a student of Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory in Boston since September 2007 and was awarded her Master of Music degree with honors in 2009.
She has performed in master classes for Zakhar Bron, Thomas Brandis, Robert Mann, Wolfgang Marschner and Christian Tetzlaff. Her success at the competition of the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben in 2003 entitles her to a violin by Andreas Guarnerius, Cremona 1663.