Program Note:   

Chaplin's Tramp is Hagen’s second piano concerto, with a twist: in one continuous movement, it is designed to be performed in tandem with the simultaneous screening of the 1915 Charlie Chaplin (1889-1977) silent film, The Tramp, or Charlot. Hagen wrote, “My entry point into this project was to set for myself the technical challenge of creating a concerto that could be performed without the film being shown and remain viable as a concert work. Its formal elements derive from the structure of Chaplin's screenplay, of course; but the postmodern narrative the music conveys also has its own rhyme and reason.” That “postmodern narrative” is as follows:  the piano (or, in live performance, the soloist) is Chaplin sometime in the 1970s, sitting alone in a screening room, watching a print of The Tramp for the first time in decades. The audience watches Charlie watch the film, and listens as Chaplin’s feelings, memories, and commentary unfold in the music.