Javier Hagen

Biography

Both tenor and countertenor, JAVIER HAGEN is one of the most versatile and surprising classical singers of his generation. He has premiered more than 300 oeuvres at prestigious contemporary music festivals all over the world collaborating with some of the most distinguished 20th and 21st century composers such as Aribert Reimann, Mauricio Kagel, Peter Eötvös, Guo Wenjing, Stefano Gervasoni, with leading concrete poetry and constructive art artists such as Eugen Gomringer, Mauricio Rosenmann, Rolf Schroeter, Günther Uecker as well as with young aspiring composers.

Javier Hagen was born in Barcelona, Spain and raised between 6 languages in Valais, Switzerland and the Mediterranean. Composition under the tutelage of Heiner Goebbels and Wolfgang Rihm, vocal training as a tenor and countertenor under Roland Hermann, Alain Billard and Nicolai Gedda. Guest at festivals for new and early music in Donaueschingen, Strasbourg, Karlsruhe, Zurich, Lucerne, Geneva, Prague, Bologna, Milan, Amsterdam, Paris, New York, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Adelaide, Riga, Avignon and Berlin. Numerous recordings for German, French, Russian, Latvian, Chinese, Czech and Swiss Radio and TV stations.

Besides "standard" opera roles like Dardanus, Giulio Cesare, Zsupan and Pappacoda Javier Hagen premiered major roles in contemporary operas such as 'air à l'en verre' by Daniel Mouthon, 'eismeer' by Christoph Schiller, 'poem ohne held' by Regina Irman, 'esther de racine' by Boris Yoffe, 'Suite on The Madman's Diary' by Guo Wenjing, 'Marienglas' by Beat Gysin, 'Keyner nit' by Mathias Steinauer, 'Ushba et Tetnuld' by Nicolas Vérin and 'Les Musiciens de Brème' by Wen Deqing.

Prize winner of international new music and composition competitions in 2001, 2004, 2008 in Basel, Lausanne and Düsseldorf. 2003 publication of his ver-rückten Volkslieder "s´sch mr alles 1 Ding" by "musiques suisses" on CD. Hagen's compositional oeuvre includes the instrumental, scenical and vocal genres as well as electroacoustic and installative works. His vocal works receive particular appreciation and are performed at festivals all around Europe (Europa Cantat Mainz, Klagenfurt and Basel 2004/06/08, Centre Culturel Suisse Paris) as well as in Central America (America Cantat), Canada, China, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia, Korea, Israel and the U.S. Together with Ulrike Mayer-Spohn, Hagen forms the duo UMS ´n JIP, which is dedicated to new musical settings for recorder, voice and electronics, being one of the activest contemporary music ensembles worldwide. Jury member of national and international contemporary music and composition contests.

Javier Hagen lives in Brig (Valais/Switzerland) and is the director of Swiss contemporary music festival Forum Wallis. He presides ISCM Switzerland, IGNM-VS and was 2012-18 a board member of swissfestivals association. Lectures and masterclasses at the universities of Moscow Tokyo, Seoul, Shanghai, Hongkong, Istanbul, Thessaloniki, Basel a.o. Calls for expertises for the Hochschule der Künste HdK Berne (2005/6), for Valais Government (2007-11) and for UNESCO (Intangible Cultural Heritage 2009-18). In 2007 Hagen was nominated "Valaisan of the Year". In 2013 he is awarded the Prix Culturel du Canton du Valais.