David Hagy served as Music Director of the Salisbury (NC) Symphony Orchestra for 35 years and conducted his final outdoor pops concert with them in June of this year: he is now titled Music Director Emeritus.  As such he will return annually each December to conduct The Nutcracker. In 2022 he retired from Wake Forest University after 27 years as the Orchestra Director there and was titled Professor Emeritus there as well.  During his time there he also taught three semesters at Wake Forest’s Casa Artom in Venice, Italy.

Dr. Hagy grew up in Indianapolis and credits that public school system with enabling him to become a classical musician.  He went to Indiana University as a violin student and Yale as a conducting student and attributes his conducting abilities to study with Thomas Briccetti and Otto-Werner Mueller.  He played violin for ten seasons with the Omaha Symphony and the Fort Wayne Philharmonic. He has also conducted the regional youth orchestras of Omaha, Springfield (MA), Greensboro, and Winston-Salem for 17 seasons.  In addition, he taught “History of the American Musical” for Wake Forest University and has conducted over fifty musical theater productions.

Dr. Hagy graduated magna cum laude as a Violin Performance major from Indiana University and holds master’s and doctor’s degrees in Orchestral Conducting from Yale University.  He currently lives in both Salisbury, NC and Long Island City, NY with his cat Dario. He is excited to be working with the wonderful musicians of the Brooklyn Symphony!

David Hagy, Guest Conductor

Florence Price
Andante Moderato

Beethoven
Symphony No. 8

Shostakovich
Symphony No. 5