Bio
Brian Hagen, owner of BH Arts, resides in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, near the capital city of Madison. His stylistic profile is an eclectic mixture of Adult Contemporary Jazz, Classical, New Age, and Space Music. He has published four CDs, performs weekly at La Brioche, a local area fine restaurant, and is busy working on the next album release. His debut release, “Reflections”, is a twenty-one track solo piano album that combines Classical pieces with original arrangements of Classical themes. Album two, titled “inward spaces … outward places”, features solo piano along with ensemble arrangements of various genres and formats, including Space Music and Adult Contemporary Jazz. His 2017 release, “You’re The One”, ventures further into emotional ranges of light and darkness. The 2022 release, titled “Portraits”, is a fifty-nine minute colllection of all-original solo compositions. Originally slated as a form of a musical gallery, it can also be interpreted as a journey, and some have suggested as a love story. It traverses a range of expressions from discovery through adventure, joy, conflict, tragic loss, reunion, and peaceful resolution.
Hagen began piano lessons at age four and started learning jazz and rock repertoire before entering high school. As a teenager he became a devoted follower of rock icons Keith Emerson, Jon Lord, and Rick Wakeman, jazz legends Art Tatum, Oscar Peterson, and Herbie Hancock, and classical masters such as Vladimir Horowitz and Artur Rubinstein. As a music major at Illinois State University, he took two semesters of electronic music production with classic analog synthesizers, and studied composition with a disciple of Igor Stravinsky. He also expanded his education by participating in multi-ethnic performing ensembles. One of these ensemble classes paid for their all-original album with their performance revenues. The album became the basis for an improvisational theater production featuring the class members as actors.
Following graduation, Hagen continued to diversify his performing styles with a range of ensembles in the greater Chicago area. These included rock bands, lounge singers, and jazz groups. Upon relocation to Madison in 1996, he attended Globe University, earning an Associate's degree in Business Administration with a music emphasis. He composed and performed soundtracks for the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Cinematique Film Festival, and joined Madison’s renowned Ark Improvisational Theater ensemble as a musical contributor. He is a featured artist on numerous Internet sites including Whisperings, Solo Piano Radio, Mainly Piano, and Enlightened Piano Radio.
At present, Hagen continues the blending of classic and modern influences into his unique piano and ensemble stylings. You can check out his music on numerous major streaming services such as Spotify. For more information, please contact bharts@bharts.net and on Facebook at BH Arts.
