Acrpost: A Project of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres

Event Description

Morning Musicale's fifth season finale featuring a special solo performance by series creator Sarah Hagen

“…the level of passion that Hagen possesses — when it comes to experiencing, interpreting and expressing art — is something quite extraordinary.”

Morning Musicale Series creator Sarah Hagen returns to the stage at the Cowichan Performing Arts Centre to close out the fifth season of Morning Musicale with an exquisite solo performance.

Join Sarah as she takes you on an intensively beautiful musical journey with this fantastically dramatic, wildly virtuosic, and heart-wrenchingly profound performance and finishing our fifth Morning Musicale season with an insightful discussion and intimate chat with the series founder.

About Sarah Hagen

"A rarity of musical excellence, technical ease and tonal purity," pianist Sarah Hagen is a sought-after soloist and chamber musician, performing in concerts across Canada as well as in the United States and Europe. Her interpretations have been described as "outstandingly inventive performed with infinite skill." (University of Waterloo Gazette)

Sarah Hagen has performed in concert halls and has been heard on broadcasts throughout North America and Europe. Awarded as the British Columbia Touring Council’s 2015 Touring Artist of the Year, and mentioned by The Guardian (Charlottetown) as the Best Classical Performance of 2014, her interpretations have been described as ”played flawlessly” (ReviewVancouver) and “with great sensitivity and heart.” (Vernon Morning Star)

A visionary and an idealist, Sarah presents conceptually innovative performances, involving photography, dance and spoken word. She is Artistic Director for Pro'ject Sound, a performance project involving live piano with large-scale projected images. Her collaboration “Exultation” with Canadian Slam Poetry Champion Brendan McLeod explores Rachmaninoff’scomplete Opus 32 Preludes through poetry and storytelling, and premiered to critical acclaim in February 2017.

Sarah has been been heard nationally on CBC Radio 2’s In Concert in a live recording with violinist Joan Blackman and cellist Ariel Barnes. She was also featured in a live recording and discussion of Schumann’s Papillons on CBC Radio One’s North by Northwest with host Sheryl MacKay. In December 2013 she released her second album, Devoted: Music of Robert & Clara Schumann, featuring solo piano works and Clara Schumann’s Romances, Opus 22 with violinist Martin Chalifour, concertmaster of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In Helsingborg, Sweden in 2006 she recorded with Swedish cellist Marit Sjödin, creating Concealed Diamonds, an album of masterworks for cello and piano.

Sarah premiered her one-woman musical comedy show to critical acclaim in the summer of 2016, touring it to various Canadian fringe festivals. Described as “one of the best hours I’ve ever spent at the Fringe” [The Coast (Halifax)], “Perk up, pianist!” tells the tale of a touring, classical musician remaining optimistic in the midst of challenging and ridiculous situations. Of the show’s debut at the Toronto Fringe Festival, Montreal Rampage wrote, “Hagen reminds us the beauty of how an honest solo performance can make you so easily fall in love with its performer.”