Babette Haag

Babette Haag (born October 31, 1967 in Munich ) is a German percussionist .

biography

The daughter of concert harpist Gudrun Haag (née Diel) and flutist Wolfgang Haag (Bavarian State Opera Munich) received her first piano lessons at the age of six. Together with her duo partner Natascha Schmidt, she won several prizes in the “Piano Duo” category at the Pianohaus Lang piano competition , including first prizes with distinction for her interpretation of Witold Lutosławski's Paganini Variations and Sergei Rachmaninov's Suite for two pianos .

At the age of seventeen she heard the then 1st prize winner of the ARD competition, Peter Sadlo, and was so enthusiastic that she decided to study percussion instruments . In addition to her musical training, she graduated from the (musical) Pestalozzi-Gymnasium in Munich in 1987 with the Abitur. From 1988 to 1994 she studied at the Musikhochschule in Freiburg / Br. With Professor Bernhard Wulff, she was accepted as a prize winner of the German Music Competition in the national selection of “Concerts of Young Artists” and in the 1992/93 season she laid the foundation for her solo career with more than 40 solo appearances throughout Germany.

Concert career

Since completing her studies in the spring of 1994, Babette Haag has played in various formations: in percussion recitals, concerts for marimba or percussion and orchestra, with the percussion ensemble Pandora or as a chamber music partner (among others in the Duo Arparimba and Trio TriColore, with the piano duo Anthony & Joseph Paratore , with Alexej Lubimov & Alexander Rabinovich, with Klaus Maria Brandauer or Bobby McFerrin ).

Her performances have taken her to many European countries as well as to the USA, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Nicaragua and Sudan. Babette Haag is a welcome guest at the major international music festivals and is invited by numerous symphony orchestras (Rheingau Music Festival, Ludwigsburg Castle Festival, Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, Berliner Festwochen, Bavarian Radio Orchestra, Frankfurt Museum Orchestra, Oldenburg State Theater, Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn, Music College Schaffhausen, Polish Chamber Philharmonic, Philharmonic Thuringia, Dresden Kapellolisten or Symphony Orchestra Plauen / Zwickau).

The musician made her debut as a soloist in North and South America in 2004 with recitals and concerts with orchestra, as well as TV and radio recordings of her appearances in the Sala Sao Paulo, among others, the most renowned concert series in Brazil. In spring 2005 she accepted an invitation to Saudi Arabia and in 2006 she could be heard on the luxury cruise ship MS Europa on a trip around Great Britain before she left for several concerts in Sudan.

At home and abroad, Babette Haag passes on her experiences in well-attended master classes, seminars and workshops such as B. at the universities of Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the College of Music and Drama Khartoum, the Braunschweig Classix Festival or the Dresden University of Music.

Discography

Four CDs from Babette Haag are currently available:

• Magic Drums - Works for Marimba, Drums, Percussion (1998),
• Impressions for Harp and Marimba - with the Duo Arparimba (1999),
• Magic Marimba - Solo Works for Marimbaphone (2002)
• Melodies for Percussion - Concerts for marimba, vibraphone, timpani or multipercussion and orchestra - with the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn under Ruben Gazarian (2005).

A second CD with the Duo Arparimba “Pas de deux” will be released in early December 2008.

Web links

• official homepage