Austrian cellist Clemens Hagen took up his instrument at age six, and by eight was enrolled at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg; he later attended the Basel Music Academy in Switzerland, where his teachers included Wilfried Tachezi and Heinrich Schiff. Hagen has performed with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Camerata Salzburg, the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra. An enthusiastic chamber musician, Hagen has collaborated with Martha Argerich, Evgeny Kissin, Mitsuko Uchida, Hélène Grimaud, Renaud Capuçon, Sabine Meyer, Gidon Kremer, Maxim Vengerov, and Yuri Bashmet, among many others, in addition to playing with the Hagen Quartet. As a professor at the Mozarteum University, Hagen teaches cello and chamber music performance, and gives master classes. His recordings have been released on Erato, Simax Classics, Preiser Records, MDG, Teldec, and Belvedere. ~ Blair Sanderson