Susan Hagen is the principal double bassist of, and has been a featured soloist with, the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra - the first female ever to achieve this honor. She has toured the US and Japan as principal double bass of this group.

In addition, Susan has been a first call substitute bassist with both and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and the Boston Pops Orchestra for the past 20 seasons, performing over 650 concerts with the BSO and over 1000 with the Boston Pops, as well as being on multiple recordings with each orchestra.

In November of 2022, she gave the US premiere of Simón García’s Concerto for Amplified Double Bass & String Orchestra with the Plymouth Philharmonic Orchestra (MA). Since then, she has performed it six more times - with the Northshore Philharmonic; the Wellesley Symphony; the New Hampshire Philharmonic; the Bach, Beethoven, & Brahms Society, and again with the Berklee Contemporary Symphony Orchestra in November of 2025.

Susan has performed with world-renowned electric bassist Steve Bailey and continues to collaborate with him, including as a featured artist on his latest album entitled “Carolina.” She can also be heard on 5-time Grammy Award winner Victor Wooten & Steve Bailey’s newest Bass X-tremes album “S’low Down” and she has also collaborated with Grammy Award Winning bassist John Patitucci.

Since March 2020, Susan has premiered and recorded more than 125 pieces (all written after 2010) and performed the World/US/Regional premieres of over 75 pieces, many of which were written for/dedicated to her.

In August 2018, Susan performed the US premiere of David Heyes' "Seven Last Words from the Cross" in Rochester, NY, and has also commissioned and/or given premieres of double bass music composed by David Heyes, John Alexander, Humphrey Clucas, Símon García, Lloyd Goldstein, John Kennedy, Lourdes Montgomery, Rodrigo Mata, Luís Guillermo Pérez, Mary Rae, Peter Byron Smith, P. Kellach Waddle, and Martin Wind, among others.

Susan was invited to perform in a solo recital in honor of Teppo Hauta-aho and Frank Proto at the International Society of Bassists’ 2021 Virtual Convention, again in recitals & as a presenter at the ISB’s 2022 mini convention, in the 2023 ISB convention in Michigan, as well as at several ISB Center Stage virtual events.

In addition to her solo recitals, Susan has teamed up with her father, guitarist/electric bassist Roy Hagen, arranging and performing music of many genres - from French art songs to current pop tunes. These recitals have raised thousands of dollars for many different charities.

In 2024 she organized & performed in the “Koussevitzky Connections” – a 10-concert and multiple-workshop tour throughout New England with British double bassist/composer David Heyes in honor of the 150 th anniversary of the birth of Serge Koussevitzky, during which she was granted the honor of playing the famed Koussevitzky bass, on loan by Gary Karr.

Susan has published a second edition of her book of Warm Ups for double bassists called “BASSics of Bass” which can be purchased on her website or at https://shop.doublebasshq.com/products/bassicsofbass.

She also has a highly acclaimed podcast called “Bass-Talk with Hagen & Heyes” which has received international acclaim. She is on faculty at Berklee College of Music, a frequent lecturer at Harvard University, and has been a clinician at the Rochester Bass Retreat, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the International Online Bass Summit, Oberlin Conservatory, Louisiana BassFest, Appalachian State, and Musicians for the World.

Susan was featured in “Strad Magazine” in spring of 2025 and will be featured again in Spring 2026. She is an endorsed artist for both PJBass amps as well as Remic Microphones. She is a founding member and the Vice Chair of the Artemis Bass Initiative, is the Career Team Leader for the International Society of Bassists, and is the Scholarship Chair for Artemis.

In February/March of 2026, Susan performed a tour with the Boston Pops Esplanade Orchestra, Susan and immediately embarked on a 5-university masterclass/recital tour through the Midwest to New York. Upon her return to Boston she will be performing a multi-city tour for the Lenten season of “Seven Last Words from the Cross” by David Heyes.

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