Interior Visions Part II – Late Music of Schubert for Two and Four Hands | Matthew Hagle and Mio Isoda-Hagle, piano

Program:

All by Franz Schubert

Piano Sonata in A major, D.664

“Lebensstürme”, Allegro in A minor, D. 947

Piano Sonata in A major, D. 959

Pianist Matthew Hagle is a musician of great versatility and depth, whose performances are a rare mixture of  musical understanding, imaginative programming, pianistic command and beauty of sound. In solo performance  he often tries to shed new light on the piano repertoire, using thoughtful programming and committed  performance to present lesser-known works and to illuminate the traditional canon. In a more conventional  vein, he has also performed all of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas and the complete later pieces of Brahms in live  radio recitals. Mr. Hagle is also highly valued as a collaborator by many other artists. With violinist Rachel  Barton Pine, he has released three acclaimed CDs on the Cedille label, and performed many recitals in North  and South America. His piano duo performances with Mio Isoda-Hagle have been highlights of the annual  Chicago Duo Piano Festival. Other chamber music partners have been the Parker Quartet, the Avalon Quartet,  Quintet Attacca, and members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Matthew Hagle has been heard in concert halls throughout the United States, including the National Gallery of  Art and Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Symphony Space in New York, and in concert at the United  States Supreme Court. Outside of the U.S., he has performed at venues in England, Canada, Brazil, Australia  and Japan. A resident of the Chicago area, Hagle performs frequently at local spaces including the Ravinia  Festival, Symphony Center, and the Chicago Cultural Center. Mr. Hagle can often be heard on radio station  WFMT in Chicago, and has also been heard on NPR’s Performance Today and Minnesota Public Radio’s St.  Paul Sunday Morning programs. Among others, the New York Times has described him as “a sensitive pianist”,  Clavier Magazine praised the “rare clarity and sweetness”of his playing, and the Springfield (MA.) Republican  remarked that he “played with unaffected brilliance and profound understanding.” Mr. Hagle’s performance of  Elliott Carter’s Piano Sonata in the Sydney International Piano Competition received special notice and  favorable commentary in Australian national radio’s coverage of the competition.

Mr. Hagle is a dedicated teacher of piano, music theory, and composition, whose students have won high honors  in local and national competitions and gone on to study music at some of the country’s finest music schools. He  is currently on the faculty of the Music Institute of Chicago, where he is director of the Musicianship program  in addition to his teaching duties. In addition, he has taught at the University of Notre Dame and at Elmhurst  College. His own studies were with Robert Weirich and Donald Currier at the Peabody Conservatory, with  Claude Frank at the Yale School of Music (where he received the DMA), and with Maria Curcio Diamand in  London as a Fulbright Scholar. A comfortable speaker on diverse musical subjects, Mr. Hagle likes to use this  ability to draw connections between very new and older music, or between music and other art forms. In his  spare time he likes to read on a variety of subjects, to try to learn Japanese, and to spend time with his wife and  two children.

Mio Isoda-Hagle has been heard in concerts as soloist and chamber musician  throughout her native Japan, United States, France, Belgium, and England.  Mio’s studies were at the Juilliard School, Tokyo National University of Fine  Arts and Music, Conservatoire National Superieur de Danse et de Musique  de Paris, where she received the Premier Prix in 1991, and the Mannes  College of Music, where she completed her Master’s Degree as a student of  Jacob Lateiner. Her other teachers have been Yasuko Nakayama, Reiko  Sakai, Takashi Yamazaki, Germaine Mounier, Gerard Fremy, and Maria  Curcio Diamand. She has been a laureate of the Senigallia and “Les Grand  Maitres Francais” international competitions. Mio teaches at the Merit  School of Music in Chicago, and performs by herself, in chamber music, and  as a duo with her husband, Matthew Hagle.