Julia Hagen

Cellist Julia Hagen was born in 1995 into a musical family in Salzburg and began playing the cello at the age of five. Following studies with Enrico Bronzi in Salzburg and Reinhard Latzko in Vienna, she continued her training in Heinrich Schiff’s class in Vienna and with Jens Peter Maintz at the Berlin University of the Arts. As a scholarship holder at the Kronberg Academy, Hagen also received important artistic guidance from Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt. Following several successes at international competitions, she was awarded the highly endowed UBS Young Artist Award in 2024 and made her Lucerne Festival debut in a concert with the Vienna Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann. Julia Hagen has since established herself as a sought-after soloist with many leading orchestras. She enjoys a close artistic partnership with Camerata Salzburg and the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra and has also appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and the Orquesta Nacional de España. In the 2025-26 season, she is featured as an “Artist in Focus” at the Vienna Musikverein, where she performs a recital with Sir András Schiff, two trio evenings, and Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with the Bamberg Symphony under Jakub Hrůša. In December 2025, she made her debut with the Orchestre de Paris as the soloist in Saint-Saëns’s First Cello Concerto. At the Dortmund Konzerthaus, Hagen is part of the “Junge Wilde” program, presenting all facets of her artistry over three seasons. As a chamber musician, she collaborates with Igor Levit, Gautier and Renaud Capuçon, Isabelle Faust, Lukas Sternath, and Leif Ove Andsnes. Her first CD, released in 2019, was devoted to the two cello sonatas by Johannes Brahms, which she recorded with pianist Annika Treutler. Since the fall of 2025, Julia Hagen has served as a Professor at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. She plays a cello made by Francesco Ruggieri in 1684, which is privately made available to her.

One previous appearance at Lucerne Festival: on 7 September 2024, when she was the soloist in Schumann’s Cello Concerto with the Vienna Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann.

January 2026