Daron Hagen

Biography

Daron Hagen (b. 1961) holds a unique position in American music as both an internationally acclaimed concert music and opera composer, and as a pioneering auteur composer-director-writer-editor of operafilm. His internationally laureled Bardo Trilogy films stream worldwide on major platforms including Amazon Prime Video, and are further documented in his forthcoming book, Exploring Operafilm: Making the Bardo Trilogy (McFarland, April 2026). Hagen's career spans five decades. He has composed five symphonies, 12 concerti, 13 operas, and over 250 songs. The world's most distinguished ensembles, such as the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Buffalo Philharmonic and Seattle Opera, have commissioned his works. His collaborations with Leonard Bernstein, JoAnn Falletta, Lukas Foss, Kate Lindsey, Paul Muldoon, Gerard Schwarz, and Gore Vidal reflect his standing among creative leaders. Hagen is a Guggenheim Fellow, a Lifetime Member of the Corporation of Yaddo, and the founding artistic director of the New Mercury Collective. Past president of the Lotte Lehmann Foundation, Hagen is former artistic director and chair of faculty for the Seasons Festival and has served as an adjudicator for the National Endowment for the Arts, ASCAP, and Opera America. Hagen has received two Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Fellowships, Bogliasco and Camargo Fellowships, two American Academy of Arts and Letters awards, and the Bearns, Barlow, ASCAP-Nissim, and Kennedy Center Friedheim Prizes. Hagen has taught at Bard College, the Curtis Institute of Music, the Chicago College of Performing Arts, and the Princeton Atelier. His memoir, Duet with the Past, was published in 2019. Published by Peermusic Classical and represented by Encompass Arts, Hagen studied at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Curtis, and the Juilliard School and continues his work in Upstate New York.