Betty-Jean Hagen

Betty-Jean Hagen (born October 17, 1930 in Edmonton , † December 27, 2016 in Poughkeepsie ) was a Canadian violinist and music teacher.

Hagen had her first violin lessons in her hometown with Alexander Nicol and was a prize winner at the Alberta Music Festival in 1937 and 1938 . From 1938–39 she studied at the Chicago Conservatory with Ludwig Becker , after which she was a member of the Edmonton Philharmonic Orchestra . From 1946 she played in the Calgary Symphony Orchestra and was a student of Clayton Hare . From 1949 to 1951 she continued her education at the Royal Conservatory of Music Toronto with Géza de Kresz . In 1950 she won the Naumburg Award associated with a performance in New York's Town Hall . As the winner of an Eaton Graduating Scholarship , she continued her training with Ivan Galamian at the Juilliard School in 1951 .

In addition, she was 1950-51 member of the Columbia Canadian Trio (with Joan Rowland and William Hossack ). As the winner of the Pathé-Marconi Prize in 1951, she had the opportunity to perform with the piano accompanist Boris Roubakin in France, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Switzerland. In 1952 she received the Commonwealth Medal in London for the outstanding musician of the British Commonwealth . The Canadian Press named her Woman of the Year in Canadian Music in 1953.

In 1956 she made her debut with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra under Dimitri Mitropoulos in Édouard Lalo's Symphonie espagnole . In the following years she performed with leading US and European orchestras and in 1960 alone went on seven concert tours through Europe from New York. In Canada she played at the Stratfort Festival in 1957 with the CBC Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Mayer and in 1959 with the Vancouver International Festival Orchestra under Herbert von Karajan . In 1962 she was one of the finalists in the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

In the 1970s, Hagen devoted himself increasingly to teaching chamber music ensembles; She herself was a member of the Westchester String Quartet and the Ermelin Piano Trio , from 1975 to 1984 (and again from 2000 to 2004) concertmaster of the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra and from 1990 of the Orange County Chamber Orchestra . Her activity as a violin soloist resumed after she performed in New York's Kauffman Hall in 1981 . This was followed by concerts with orchestras in Alberta and Ontario and performances in Montreal, Edmonton and Toronto with the pianist Arthur Rowe .

With him (later replaced by Todd Crow ), the violinist Ralph Aldrich and the cellist Malcolm Tait , she founded the Hart Piano Quartet in 1985 , which was active until 1989. From 1985 Hagen taught lana for twenty years at Vassar College , and from 1985 to 1989 at the University of Western Ontario . In recent times she has performed with the Tourmaline String Quartet , the Vassar Piano Trio and the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra, mainly in the northeastern United States.

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• Betty-Jean Hagen ( English, French ) In: Encyclopedia of Music in Canada . published by The Canadian Encyclopedia .
• The Violin Channel, January 3, 2017: New York violinist Betty-Jean Hagen Has Died
• The Strad, January 3, 2017: Canadian-born violinist and teacher Betty-Jean Hagen has died aged 86