Creative polymath Daron Hagen’s lifelong passion for sharing the dividends of living an examined life, combined with his work’s impeccable craftsmanship, social conscience, and emotional accessibility inspired Opera News to declare, “to say that he is a remarkable musician is to underrate him. Daron is music.” Composer of 14 operas and two internationally-laureled composer-directed opera films, 6 symphonies (major works for ASCAP’s 75th Anniversary, the New York Philharmonic’s 150th, the Curtis Institute’s 75th, Yaddo’s 100th, and the Seattle Opera, Philadelphia Orchestra, National Symphony, Buffalo Philharmonic, Albany Symphony, and Orpheus Chamber Orchestra), 14 concertos, chamber music, choral works, and over 300 widely-performed art songs, he is also a stage and auteur film director, librettist, conductor, collaborative pianist, and the author of the critically acclaimed memoir, Duet With the Past. A Lifetime Member of the Corporation of Yaddo, he has served as a panelist for the NEA, Copland House, CRI, Joy in Singing, NATS, Douglas Moore Fund, Opera America, VCCA, ASCAP, received two awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Friedheim Prize, Guggenheim Fellowship, two Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residencies, and the Barlow Endowment, Bearns, and ASCAP-Nissim Prizes. A graduate of Curtis and Juilliard, he has directed music festivals and non-profit foundations and served on the faculties of schools from Bard to Curtis, the Chicago College of Performing Arts to the Princeton Atelier. His music is widely recorded and published by Peermusic Classical. Represented by Encompass Arts, he lives in Rhinebeck, NY with his wife Gilda Lyons and their sons.