Sigma Alpha Iota

sai-national.org • Spring 2025 19 A Wld of Music Mozart, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Dvořák, Bruckner, Handel, Hindemith, and Richard Strauss. This Mozart expert has recorded forty- four concert arias and all twenty-seven piano concertos. He has also conducted live performances of Mozart's early stage works, such as Apollo et Hyacinthus and Ascanio in Alba. Not surprisingly, when a student at Salzburg Mozarteum, Hager studied organ, piano, harpsichord, and composition. Yes, all four! As a teenager in Munich, he won his first international competition for developing musicians and later a second in the Netherlands for improvisation. A conducting student of Gerhard Wimberger, Hager was the General Music Director of Philharmonisches Orchester Freiburg (1965–1969) before becoming the chief conductor of the Mozarteum Orchestra and the Landestheater in Salzburg from 1969 until 1981. Later he became the music director of the RTL-Symphony Orchestra Luxembourg, a position he held until 1996. He has conducted at prestigious opera houses, such as Metropolitan Opera in New York, Lyric Opera in Chicago, Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Bayerische Staatsoperthe in Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Semperoper Dresden, Opera Bastille Paris, and Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Several of these appearances were premiere stagings. During a period of about fifteen years, Hager conducted 308 performances at the Vienna Staatsoper (State Opera); he was Chief Conductor at the Vienna Volksoper (Folk Opera) from 2005–2008. In the Austrian capital, he also taught orchestra conducting at the University of Music in Vienna (1992–2004). Throughout his long, distinguished career, Hager appeared on orchestra podiums around the world, including ten tours in Japan as well as in many European countries. In his native Austria, he collaborated four times with my late brother, virtuoso concert pianist Malcolm Frager: Concerto No. 13 in C, K. 415 twice with the Innsbrucker Symphonieorchester in Innsbruck in 1981; and Concerto No. 25 in C, K. 503 twice with the Vienna Philharmonic in Salzburg at Mozart Week 1982. Their fifth time together was the latter concerto with RTL- Symphony Orchestra Luxembourg in 1985. When asked whether he prefers conducting orchestras or operas, he replied that he didn't know and then stated, "Sometimes a conductor has to do both with the same performers." During Mozart Week 2025, I visited this musical giant. Widowed just before his sixtieth wedding anniversary, he has lived in his lovely home near the Schloss Hellbrunn for over a half century. It has a large garden, a spectacular view of the Alps, and houses his vast collection of scores, recordings (tapes, records, and CDs), programs, books, and family photos. Displayed on a long shelf were souvenirs from his South American conducting tours. Downstairs is a huge monitor for digital videos in which he conducts various symphonic and operatic works around the world. Hager has conducted numerous concerts during his long career. Once when he was shown a program, he replied affably and with a twinkle in his eye: "I conducted this? Really?" But we both affectionately remember the memorial concert for my brother during Mozart Week 1992. Coincidentally, both surnames (Hager and Frager) are pronounced with a long "a" and rhyme. Hager conducted the English Chamber Orchestra with whom he has a close relationship as well as several recordings. In 2023, Hager initiated and financed the Leopold Hager Fund, a project to give talented young conductors the opportunity to work and perform one week with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra; they will receive a professional video of their work. The members are winners of competitions (such as those held in London, Copenhagen, and Bamberg and by the Karajanstiftung Salzburg, and Deutscher Musikrat), and this year will be featured at celebratory concerts for Hager's 90th birthday. In addition to being on the podium himself to conduct one of his own compositions, Hager will be conducting concerts in Palma, Majorica; Zagreb, Croatia; Warsaw, Poland; and Luxembourg. One can only wonder what plans he has to celebrate his subsequent birthday milestones! Jayne I. Hanlin is an initiate of Alpha Omicron and current member of the St. Louis Alumnae chapter. Mrs. Hanlin, the sister of famed pianist Malcolm Frager, is the co- author of Learning Latin Through Mythology (Cambridge University Press, 1991).

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