Meet Our New Principal Cello, Warren Hagerty!
With 5 new musicians joining us for our 2nd Classical concert, Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique,” we’d like to highlight the new faces you’ll notice on stage with Carl St.Clair!
As of 2019, Warren Hagerty is the new principal cellist of Pacific Symphony. An avid chamber musician, he was the founding cellist of the Verona Quartet. As a member of the quartet, he was awarded top prizes in international chamber music competitions on four continents, including the Wigmore Hall International String Quartet Competition, Osaka International Chamber Music Competition, Melbourne International Chamber Music Competition, Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition and Concert Artists Guild’s Victor Elmaleh Competition. The Verona Quartet was featured as “New Artist of the Month” in Musical America in May 2016. He has performed at many of the world’s most renowned venues, such as Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center and the Sydney Opera House. Warren holds degrees from The Juilliard School and Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music; his primary mentors have included members of the Juilliard String Quartet, Pacifica Quartet, Eric Kim and Sharon Robinson.
He has collaborated with many great musicians including Renée Fleming, David Shifrin, Cho-Liang Lin and Orion Weiss. He has appeared at numerous festivals such as the La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, Indiana University String Academy, Chelsea Music Festival, McGill International String Quartet Academy and the New York String Orchestra Seminar, where he was principal cellist in 2010. A strong proponent of new music, Warren was involved in commissioning and premiering composer Michael Gilbertson’s first string quartet, which was a finalist for the 2018 Pulitzer Prize in music. He has also premiered works by Richard Danielpour and Sebastian Currier. Among Warren’s many teaching engagements have been Teaching Assistant positions at The Juilliard School and Indiana University, as well as faculty roles at Indiana University String Academy and Oberlin String Quartet Intensive and Festival, and Teaching Artist positions with Youth Orchestra Los Angeles and Caesura Youth Orchestra. Warren is the Director of Junior Chamber Music Los Angeles.
Make sure to check out the Verona Quartet’s performance of Ravel’s String Quartet in F Major below!