Violinist calls in sick; TSO snags fill-in from Germany

What was he doing the following weekend?

Apparently not much. The 23-year-old violinist hopped on a plane from Frankfurt, Germany, and headed stateside.

He will sub for violinist Timothy Lees and his violist wife Catharine Carroll Lees, who pulled out of their TSO MasterWorks concerts early last week after Timothy Lees was injured, according to the TSO. The pair were to perform Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for Viola and Violin in three concerts this weekend.

So instead of Mozart, the ensemble, led by guest conductor Keitaro Harada, will perform Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3 for the first time since 1962.

No pressure, Will.

“It is short notice, but I find that really exciting,” Hagen said Monday from New York City, a stopover before he arrives in Tucson. “I like having to be ready in a short amount of time. It’s fun to have to kick things into high gear immediately.”

Besides, he is quick to note, he knows the piece pretty well. He performed it in 2015 at the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition. He took third place — the highest finish for an American since 1985.

And he loves the piece. A lot.

“I’m so excited to play it. Its so accessible and beautiful. It’s just beautiful music,” he all but gushed. “It’s got drama and beautiful melodies. It’s got flash and dash technique. It’s got a little bit of everything. I think the audience is really going to like it. There are kind of moments in the second movement that kind of sound like a Disney soundtrack. It’s really beautiful music, kind of nostalgic music.”

The switch gives Tucson a chance to experience a rising young talent that the Dallas Morning News called “a standout.”

“Even in an age when brilliant young violinists seem to grow on trees, Hagen, whose teachers have included Itzhak Perlman, is a standout. He tossed off the most virtuosic passages of the Saint-Saëns with amazing precision, but he also made music — not mere whizzings of notes,” the newspaper said. “Both here and in the lyrical middle movement he always knew where the music was going and why.”

Hagen has been playing violin since he was 4 and made his professional orchestra debut at 9 with his hometown Utah Symphony. At 10, he commuted weekly to Los Angeles to study with Robert Lipsett at the Colburn Community School of Performing Arts, where he eventually earned a performance degree. He also studied with Perlman at Juilliard for two years.

Hagen has performed on stages all over the world, from Beijing to Belgium and throughout the U.S. He’s even performed in Tucson in a chamber concert while he was attending Colburn.

“It’s as pretty as the desert can be,” he recalled. “It’s a really scenic, beautiful place. I didn’t have time to get Mexican food, but in Germany there’s no Mexican food so I am really excited.”

He’s also excited to see TSO Concertmaster Lauren Rustad Roth. Roth and Hagen’s new wife Andrea Ashdown — the couple married over the summer — were roommates at Cleveland Institute of Music.