Biography
Hugo Haag's consuming relationship with music began early in life. At age 2, he was taken for his first violin lesson, though it was the teaching of Patricia Birchall at age 7 that began his path of a life dedicated to music. Admitted to the illustrious Yehudi Menuhin School at age 11, he first studied there with established Russian pedagogue Lutsia Ibragimova for 5 years. It was during these foundational years that he had his first contact with the Viola, performing regularly with both instruments in chamber and orchestral ensembles. Consequently, he dedicated himself to the lower-voiced instrument during his final years at the school, under the tutelage of the former protégé of Yehudi Menuhin and Erick Friedman: Boris Kucharsky. Graduating from the school in 2020, he continued his studies with Kucharsky at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Solo recitalist, recording artist, chamber musician, festival director and teacher.
In 2019, his performance of Brahms' 1st piano quartet op.25 at the Wigmore Hall alongside other Menuhin school students received critical acclaim, reviewed in the STRAD magazine as follows: “making a repertoire staple sound both profoundly lived-in and newly minted: a thoughtfully shaped performance, masterfully combining dazzle and dash with rhythmic precision and grandeur.”
In August of the same year, Hugo organized the first edition of the festival “Les Musiques Vagabondes” in Normandy France, which has taken place every year since under his musical directorship. The festival brings together musicians from across the world such as from the conservatoires in Berlin, Paris Barcelona, Vienna, Hamburg and London. They work intensively together for ten days before performing in five concerts to large audiences. Hugo performs extensively at the festival every year, so far having presented Bach’s 1st and 3rd Cello suite, Penderecki’s Cadenza, Britten’s Elegy for solo viola, 3 Haydn quartets, Schubert’s 15th string quartet, Brahms’ piano quintet op.34 and piano quartet Op.60, both Sextets Op.18 and Op.36, Viola sonata Op.120 no.1, Fauré’s piano quartet Op.15, Hindemith’s sonata Op.11 No.4 and solo viola sonata Op.25 no.1. The evolution of the festival is a primary ambition of his, and more information can be found at https://kentnerfestival.com/
Hugo's musicianship has brought him to perform in a large number of prestigious masterclasses, given by musicians such as Robert Levin, Nobuko Imai, Lars Anders Tomter, Jean Sulem, Lawrence Power, Levon Chilingirian, Krzysztof Chorzelski, HsinYun Huang, Wolfram Christ, Wenting Kang and Paul Coker. He has performed on stage with, among others, Roman Simovic, Krzysztof Chorlezski, Levon Chilingirian, Matthew Huber, Thomas Carroll, Winfried Rademacher and Boris Kucharsky at various concerts and festivals.
In 2020 Hugo participated in the Colluvio Chamber Music Academy, performing Arensky's piano quintet on tour across Austria and the Czech Republic, including concerts in Das MuTH in Vienna and at the Austrian cultural forum in Prague.
In 2023, he was awarded first prize at the ‘string competition online’ for recordings of Bach, Britten, Hindemith and Brahms.
His distinctive debut album, an exciting collaboration with his professor Boris Kucharsky, Thomas Carroll and Gorka Plada, includes Brahms’s Piano Quartet Op.60, Hindemith’s Viola Sonata Op.11 No.4 and Penderecki’s Cadenza for Solo viola, and will be released on the 20th June 2025.
Hugo regularly organises concert events in London for humanitarian causes, such as a concert on the 9 th July 2024 in St John’s Downshire Hill, to raise funds for the charity ‘Freedom from Torture’, an organisation which provides support for torture survivors. He performed Bach’s 1st suite, Hindemith Op.25 No.1 and Brahms’s 2nd String quintet Op.111 alongside Boris Kucharksy, Mee-Hyun Esther Park, Otoha Tabata and Matthew Huber, which can be heard on the 'listen' page of this website.
Hugo performs on an exceptional Viola made in 2021 by the luthier David Munro, based on the 1741 Ex–Yehudi Menuhin Carlo Antonio Testore Viola, which Hugo played for 3 years. He plays on bows by leading archetiers Noel Burke, Christophe Collinet and Christian Barthe.
From September 2025, Hugo will begin his Master's degree studies at the Musik-Akadamie in Basel, Switzerland, working with Geneviève Strosser.
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The 1741 Ex - Menuhin Testore Viola
Hugo's 2021 David Munro Viola in construction
Performing Brahms with the D. Munro Testore copy