Susan Hasegawa

Orchestra Member

Instrument

Violin I

Year Joined

2001

Most memorable performance with the ESO

Our October 2008 concert, featuring Finlandia, the Enigma Variations, and Chee-Yun performing the Beethoven Violin Concerto, was personally memorable as my youngest child could share the experience with me the week before his birth.

Favorite ESO soloist

Irina Muresanu

Why I like playing with the ESO

Being able to perform diverse and challenging music in a joyful, collegial atmosphere. As much as I love sinking my teeth into lush, Romantic symphonic repertoire, I also enjoy the opportunity to explore works from the late 20th and early 21st century.

Favorite composers

Brahms, Mahler and Beethoven

When I’m not playing with the ESO, I’m…

When I’m not trying to keep up with my eight-year-old son, I do various volunteer activities and enjoy knitting, traveling, skiing and reading. Currently, I’m trying to revive some very rusty Japanese language skills in preparation for a trip to Japan with my husband, son and elderly parents.

Something most people don’t know about me

Although I’m a third-generation Japanese-American, I was actually born in Nagasaki, Japan, while my dad worked there in the 1960s. He helped collect data for a large, U.S.-based study on radiation exposure following the atomic bomb blast. Unfortunately, we returned home while I was still a baby, so I didn’t learn the Japanese language at the time — and am now paying dearly for it!