Department of Music : Faculty

David Hagy, Orchestra Director, 1995-

E-mail: dhagy@wfu.edu
Office: M104 Scales Fine Arts Center

This is Dr. David Hagy's seventeenth year as the Orchestra Director at Wake Forest University.  In addition to directing the Wake Forest Orchestra, Dr. Hagy teaches Introduction to Western Music, Conducting, History of the American Musical, and a freshman seminar in the Music Theater of Stephen Sondheim, as well as coaching a variety of chamber music ensembles.  His other responsibilities include overseeing the Presidential Scholarship selections in the spring, and participating on the Curriculum, Large Ensemble, and Scheduling Committees.  When he came to Wake Forest he began the annual Wake Forest Orchestra Halloween Concert at midnight on Halloween.  This cult concert consists of live music played while various faculty and staff act out a scenario the orchestra members know nothing about; this performance is interrupted by tricks planned in advance by the orchestra members but without telling the faculty!  This event has been labeled as one of the ten events on campus not to be missed!  In addition to this concert the orchestra has performed music of all styles from complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms and Tchaikovsky to the Short Ride in a Fast Machine of John Adams and “The Adventure on Earth” from John Williams’ score to E.T.: The Extraterrestrial.  The Orchestra’s annual Concerto Competition has featured well over one hundred soloists in the concert featuring the winners of this competition.  The orchestra also has accompanied the Theatre Department’s musical during all of Dr. Hagy’s tenure, as he has a keen interest in American Musical Theater.In the falls of 2004 and 2008 Dr. Hagy served as director of Wake Forest’s Casa Artom, the school’s house in Venice, Italy, and he has recently been appointed to serve again in the fall of 2012.

            This is also David Hagy’s twenty-third season as Music Director and Conductor of the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra.  During Hagy's years in Salisbury he has led the orchestra in performances ranging in size from the seven-person The Soldier's Tale by Igor Stravinsky with dance and narration to the monumental Mahler Second Symphony with six choirs and over 100 instrumentalists.  Pops performances have included concerts devoted to jazz, gospel, blues, musical theater, film music and comedy.  He has brought many fine soloists to play with the orchestra for Salisbury audiences including two Van Cliburn Piano Competition finalists and “water” percussionist David Cossin.  His humorous approach to Bernstein’s Candide Overture (in ski boots!) amazed all, including himself.  He and the orchestra have also collaborated with many of Salisbury's, Rowan County's and the Piedmont's most accomplished musicians and artistic organizations.  In addition he has helped in the development of both the free summer outdoor concert “Pops at the Post” and a Nutcracker production.  Future dreams include significant renovations at both concert halls at Catawba and Livingstone Colleges as well as expansion of the orchestra’s audience through performances in the Kannapolis area.

            Mr. Hagy has served as the assistant conductor of the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Greensboro Symphony and Winston-Salem Symphony Youth Orchestras, guest conductor of the Gulf Coast Symphony, and as a guest conductor for several of the Piedmont area’s orchestras.  During eleven summers he has conducted the orchestra at Laurel Music Camp in Connecticut.  He has also music directed over forty musicals not only with Wake Forest but also the Catawba College Theatre Arts Department and the Piedmont Players Theater in Salisbury among others.

            In 1992 Mr. Hagy received his doctorate from Yale University where he was a student of Otto-Werner Mueller.  While in Connecticut he served as an assistant conductor of the Philharmonia Orchestra of Yale, the International Music Program of the North Carolina School of the Arts, and the Norwalk and Stamford Symphonies; conductor of the Western Massachusetts Youth Orchestras; and guest conductor with the Omaha and Indianapolis All-City Orchestras, several Yale dramatic organizations, and in January of 1988 with the Salisbury Symphony Orchestra.

            Before moving to Connecticut, Mr. Hagy spent four years as the Music Director and Manager of the Omaha Area Youth Orchestras.  He also served as Assistant Conductor of the Omaha Symphony and the Fort Wayne (Indiana) Philharmonic and as a violinist with both orchestras.  He received his Bachelor of Music in violin performance from Indiana University in 1977.  As a senior in high school Mr. Hagy guest conducted the Indianapolis Symphony in performances of one of his own compositions.  From high school through his tenure in Omaha he studied conducting with Thomas Briccetti.

            Mr. Hagy is a resident of downtown Salisbury, commuting three to four days a week to Wake Forest University.  While marking orchestra parts or grading papers, David can be found near a television with either science fiction or mysteries playing.