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This is a Tiered Pricing show and we encourage patrons to choose the ticket price that suits their budget. Sarah Hagen brings this classic programme featuring Bach’s formidable Goldberg Variations as part of the celebration of the recent release of her recording of the masterwork.
Cherished by many, the Goldberg Variations are emblematic of keyboard virtuosity, rich expression, and hardcore classical interpretation. Sarah will offer a short introduction to this marvellous and intense piece before playing the full work.
“Canadian pianist Sarah Hagen’s Goldberg Variations are dramatically different. Naysayers and refusniks beware: her approach combines unfettered joy, wide awake with wonder, requisite pedagogy, and the ability to make the instrument bend to her will. The epic scope of the work is stated right out of the gate, with an extensive exploration of the Aria that opens the way to the variable tempi, harmonic adventure with unlimited changes in registration and emotion. Hagen’s performance combines vivid precision of touch with perfect articulation of line, making her Goldberg Variations something to absolutely die for.” – Whole Note Magazine
† Programme ¢
Prelude Johann Gottlieb Goldberg (1727-1756)
Goldberg Variations Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750)
Aria
Variatio 1 a 1 Clav.
Variatio 2 a 1 Clav.
Variatio 3 Canone all’Unisono a 1 Clav.
Variatio 4 a 1 Clav.
Variatio 5 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav.
Variatio 6 Canone alla Seconda a 1 Clav.
Variatio 7 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav. Al tempo di Giga
Variatio 8 a 2 Clav.
Variatio 9 Canone alla Terza a 1 Clav.
Variatio 10 Fughetta a 1 Clav.
Variatio 11 a 2 Clav.
Variatio 12 Canone alla Quarta (a 1 Clav.)
Variatio 13 a 2 Clav.
Variatio 14 a 2 Clav.
Variatio 15 Canone alla Quinta a 1 Clav. Andante
Variatio 16 Ouverture a 1 Clav.
Variatio 17 a 2 Clav.
Variatio 18 Canone alla Sesta a 1 Clav.
Variatio 19 a 1 Clav.
Variatio 20 a 2 Clav.
Variatio 21 Canone alla Settima (a 1 Clav.)
Variatio 22 a 1 Clav. Alla breve
Variatio 23 a 2 Clav.
Variatio 24 Canone all’Ottava a 1 Clav.
Variatio 25 a 2 Clav. Adagio
Variatio 26 a 2 Clav.
Variatio 27 Canone alla Nona a 2 Clav.
Variatio 28 a 2 Clav.
Variatio 29 a 1 ovvero 2 Clav.
Variatio 30 Quodlibet a 1 Clav.
Aria da capo
ABOUT SARAH
Canadian pianist Sarah Hagen’s extensive touring has taken her across Canada, to Sweden,
France, Germany and Italy, and twice to New York City’s Carnegie Hall. Awarded as Artist of the Year
by both Ontario Contact (2017) and the BC Touring Council (2015), and mentioned by The Guardian
(Charlottetown) as the Best Classical Performance of 2014, her interpretations have been described
as “outstandingly inventive” [University of Waterloo Gazette], ”played flawlessly” [ReviewVancouver].
A visionary and an idealist, Sarah’s performances are conceptually innovative, involving photogra-
phy, dance, and theatre. She is Artistic Director for Pro’ject Sound, a performance project involving
live piano with large-scale projected images.
An avid collaborator, Sarah has performed with cellist Ariel Barnes, violist Nicolò Eugelmi, cellist
Phillip Hansen, violinist Robert Uchida, tenor Benjamin Butterfield, horn player Oto Carrillo, soprano
Barbara Livingston, Trio Accord, Ballet Victoria, the Emily Carr String Quartet, the Bergmann Piano
Duo, jazz pianist Søren Bebe, clarinettist Keith MacLeod, among many others. Sarah has appeared
as soloist with the Victoria Symphony under the baton of Mei-Ann Chen, the Kitchener-Waterloo
Symphony conducted by Mark Skazinetsky, the West Coast Symphony Orchestra with conductor
Bujar Llapaj, and the Symphony Orchestra of the Pacific with conductor Arthur Arnold.
As a First Prize Winner in the 2013 Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition, Sarah was
awarded the opportunity to perform solo at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in May 2013. Sarah re-
leased an album of Goldberg Variations in 2021. Her third album, Women of Note, highlights two for-
gotten female composers of the 18th century, and garnered the 2021 Music PEI Instrumental
Recording of the Year as well as two ECMA nominations. Sarah’s debut solo album, Glass House
Dancing, was nominated for Classical Recording of the Year at the 2009 Western Canadian Music
Awards. Her second album, Devoted: Music of Robert & Clara Schumann, features solo piano works
and Clara Schumann’s Romances, Opus 22 with violinist Martin Chalifour, concertmaster of the Los
Angeles Philharmonic.
Sarah has been been heard nationally on CBC Radio 2’s In Concert in a live recording with violinist
Joan Blackman and cellist Ariel Barnes. She was also featured in a live recording and discussion of
Schumann’s Papillons on CBC Radio One’s North by Northwest with host Sheryl MacKay. In Hels-
ingborg, Sweden in 2006 she recorded with Swedish cellist Marit Sjödin, creating Concealed Dia-
monds, an album of masterworks for cello and piano.
Sarah’s primary teachers and mentors have been Jamie Parker, Gregory Chaverdian, Christine
Purvis and Glen Montgomery. She has completed five residencies at the Banff Centre for the Arts
and enjoyed two terms there as collaborative pianist.
During her years on the west coast of Canada, Sarah founded nine concert series, curating each
one individually, and inviting artists from across Canada and around the world to share the stage
with her. She has toured throughout Sweden numerous times with cellist Marit Sjödin, violinist Ian
Peaston, and Per Johansson, principal clarinet of the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra. Other in-
ternational concerts of note include a recital at DePaul University with Oto Carrillo, hornist in the
Chicago Symphony, Schumann Piano Quintet in Darmstadt with members of the Frankfurt Radio
Symphony, and a performance at Carnegie Hall with Polish flautist Krzysztof Kaczka.
In addition to writing wine reviews for her blog, “ARTIST WINES! – Uncorking musician-priced cellar
secrets,” Sarah tours a one-woman musical comedy show called “Perk up, pianist!” of which the
Edmonton Journal wrote, “Her comic timing is as solid as her musical meter.”
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Imperial Theatre, 12 King Sq S, Saint John, NB E2L 5B8, Canada,Saint John, New Brunswick
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