Julia Hagen

Cellist Julia Hagen was born in 1995 into a family of musicians in Salzburg and began playing cello at the age of five. Following her training with Enrico Bronzi in Salzburg and Reinhard Latzko in Vienna, she spent several formative years, from 2013 to 2015, in Heinrich Schiff’s class in Vienna, and subsequently studied with Jens Peter Maintz at the Universität der Künste in Berlin. As a Kronberg Academy scholarship holder, Hagen also continued her studies with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt until 2022. She won the International Cello Competition in Liezen as well as the Concorso Internazionale “Benedetto Mazzacurati” and received the HBW Culture Prize and the Prix Jean-Nicolas Firmenich at the Verbier Festival. In 2024, she won the prestigious UBS Young Artist Award and made her Lucerne Festival debut in a concert with the Vienna Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann. Julia Hagen is now a sought-after soloist with many renowned orchestras. In the 2024-25 season, she performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the hr-Sinfonieorchester in Frankfurt, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Bavarian Radio, among others, and made her US debut with the Cleveland Orchestra. At the Konzerthaus Dortmund, Hagen is one of the “Junge Wilden” (“Wild Young Ones”), young up-and-coming soloists who demonstrate their versatility over three seasons. As a chamber musician, she works with Igor Levit and Renaud Capuçon, and last season she toured with them through Germany and Italy with a Schoenberg-Brahms program. She also performs with harpist Anneleen Lenaerts and pianist Lukas Sternath. In 2019, she released her first album, partnered by Annika Treutler, which features accounts of the two cello sonatas by Johannes Brahms. Julia Hagen plays a cello built by Francesco Ruggieri in 1684, which is provided privately on loan. 

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.

April 2025