Conductor/Pianist Oliver Hagen was born in New York City in 1986. In 2010 Oliver was named Assistant Conductor of the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris. In this position, Oliver mainly assisted music director, Susanna Mälkki; he also worked there with Pierre Boulez, Peter Eötvös, Ludovic Morlot, and Matthias Pintscher. In April and May of 2012, Oliver served as Assistant Conductor at the Paris Opéra Comique, conducting staging rehearsals for a world premiere opera by Marco Stroppa, Re Orso. Earlier this year, Oliver made his début with the musicians of the National Orchestra of Lyon, conducting Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with former Bayreuth soprano, Anja Silja. Since 2010, Oliver has appeared in concert with American and French ensembles such as the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Linea, Ensemble soundinitiative, the Firebird Ensemble, and the Orchestra of the League of Composers--the last of whom he conducted in June of 2012 at Symphony Space in NYC, at the 75th Anniversary Celebration concert of the American Composers’; Alliance. Oliver conducted the Ecce Ensemble for the first time in March of 2012.

In the summers of 2010 and 2011, Oliver was Assistant Conductor to Pierre Boulez, David Robertson, and Peter Eötvös at the Lucerne Festival Academy; Oliver conducted the Lucerne Festival Academy Ensemble in concert in 2011, performing Stockhausen’s Kontra-punkte and Kreuzspiel. As part of his duties as Assistant Conductor of the Ensemble Intercontemporain, Oliver served as Assistant Conductor for the Paris Conservatory Orchestra on several concerts.

Currently, Oliver is working as Assistant Conductor of Face the Music Ensemble, a new music ensemble for high school students, at the Kaufman Center in NYC. As a pianist, Oliver has a strong association with the Lucerne Festival Academy, which he attended between 2005 and 2009. In September of 2009, Oliver appeared as one of the solo pianists in Pierre Boulez’s Répons, under the direction of the composer at the KKL in Lucerne. The 2007-08 Season brought an international tour, also under the direction of Pierre Boulez, in which Oliver performed Boulez’s sur Incises, which was heard at venues including the Philharmonie in Essen, Germany and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. The touring ensemble also performed sur Incises in Japan at the Art Tower Mito under the direction of Jean Deroyer.

As a pianist of the New York City based new music ensemble Signal, which performs under the direction of Brad Lubman, Oliver has appeared at venues ranging from The Ojai Music Festival, Columbia University’s Miller Theatre, and the Festival of Contemporary Music at Tanglewood to the Bang on a Can Marathon and Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. As a member of Signal, Oliver has worked closely with composers Steve Reich, Helmut Lachenmann, Charles Wuorinen, and Oliver Knussen. Oliver can be heard on two upcoming Signal releases: a CD/surround-sound DVD of music by Lachenmann, with the composer as soloist in “…Zwei Gefühle…”  (Mode); Michael Gordon, David Lang, and Julia Wolfe’s Shelter (Canteloupe).

Oliver holds a bachelor of music degree in clarinet and composition, and a master of music degree in conducting—both from the Eastman School of Music.