Composer Daron Hagen has studied with the likes of Leonard Bernstein, David Diamond, Ned Rorem and Bernard Rands and has attended prestigious schools such as Juilliard and Curtis. He's even done extensive orchestrating and arranging, including a stint with Virgil Thomson. But he'll tell you, while he learned from all, his compositional voice has hardly changed since he began at 13.

Daron Hagen -- Composer of four major operas, as well as numerous orchestral, chamber, choral and lyric compositions. Click photo for larger image. Music of Daron Hagen Music on the Edge Chamber Orchestra Where: Bellefield Hall Auditorium, Oakland. When: 8 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets: $5-$10 advance; $10-$15 door; Pitt students free; 412-394-3353. Listen in Listen to audio excerpts of performances by Daron Hagen: "Holy Thursday" from Daron Hagen's "Muldoon Songs," Paul Kreider, baritone, Hagen, piano. Arsis "Reprise" from Hagen's "Duo for Violin and Cello," Michaela Paetsch, violin, and Robert La Rue, cello. Arsis "Seduction Scene" from Hagen's opera "Bandanna," Kreider, Hagen, UNLV Opera Theater. Albany "Dealer's Chorus" from Hagen's "cabaret" opera, "Vera of Las Vegas," UNLV Opera Theater Chorus and Orchestra. CRI

"I have always written the style of music I write now," he says by phone from his apartment in New York City. It's a style that has been called "utterly brilliant" and said to be filled with "soaring melodies" by prominent critics, along with bringing him numerous awards, commissions and recording projects.

Hagen, 45, attributes that to fortune rather than stubbornness.

"I am just lucky that the voice I have happens to be ingratiating," he says with a chuckle.

Although Hagen is versed in modernism and has incorporated serialism (12-tone music), sound mass and other newer techniques into his works, he has a penchant for tonality, melody and approachable -- dare we say, enjoyable -- music. Lucky for him, this is the "it" style of the moment, after decades of serious and difficult music.

"I never felt the pressure to sound like anyone else," he says. "The battles were already fought by the time I started. In retrospect I feel lucky." New techniques "got folded into my personal style" rather than leading to an eclectic style.

Such confidence can come from a positive upbringing, and Hagen had a supportive one in Milwaukee. The youngest of three sons, he taught himself to read music at 11 and began composing at 13, inspired by a recording of Benjamin Britten's "Billy Budd" his brother gave to him. Two years later, his "Suite for a Lonely City" was performed by a local youth symphony, and his mother sent it to Bernstein, who enthusiastically recommended he continue in composition.

Hagen will talk about his music, advise students and have his music performed this week in his role as the University of Pittsburgh's 2007 Franz Lehar composer-in-residence.

Hagen's voice may have been set early on, but that doesn't mean he is limited as a composer. The program of the concert alone shows his versatility: a dramatic cantata in "Songs of Madness and Sorrow" (based in part on Michael Lesy's "Wisconsin Death Trip"); an instrumental chamber work in Piano Trio No. 3, "Wayfaring Stranger"; and an operatic scene in "Broken Pieces." Within the field Hagen is known for his operas, such as "Shining Brow" about architect Frank Lloyd Wright, many with librettos by the Irish poet Paul Muldoon. But the composer commands equal respect for his voluminous amount of art songs, chamber music, wind band music and orchestral works.

"I wouldn't typecast myself as an opera composer; I write whatever I am paid to write," says Hagen, who has four major operas to his credit. "But I search out opportunities to write opera. That is what gets me going." He is currently writing "Amelia" for Seattle Opera. It, like many of his dramatic works, speaks to his own life.

	Background on Lehar composers Daron Hagen is the latest in a long line of high-profile composers who have visited the University of Pittsburgh over the years as Lehar composers-in-residence. The position is named for Franz Lehar, composer of the operetta "The Merry Widow." Recipients spend a week at Pitt evaluating student composers, speaking publicly and overseeing a concert of their own works. Some notable past participants: Milton Babbitt (1990) Witold Lutoslawski (1991) Paul Lansky (1992) Joan Tower (1994) Lee Hyla (1997) Anthony Davis (1998) Chen Yi (2000) Judith Weir (2001) Melinda Wagner (2002) David Del Tredici (2003)

"Every one of my operas is about what I am going through at that time," he says. For instance, the recasting of "Othello" in "Bandana" mirrored the divorce he was going through about a decade ago. "I was an angry guy, going through anger at infidelity and betrayal." "Amelia" uses themes of aviation as a metaphor for "the cycle of life, death, and rebirth." "I am happily married now and starting a family, so that is now my issue," he says.

As much as he enjoys writing operas, he is the first to admit that operas also help subsidize his other music. "It is the most lucrative." And that's important when you are an independent composer.

Hagen is one of a few composers who have been able to support themselves without a university position. He taught at Curtis, Bard College and at the City College of New York but then left academia in the mid-'90s.

"I had something to prove at the time, and I had the satisfaction of knowing that I was a composer making a living as a composer," he says.

At first the going was rough. "I was taking every commission that came in over the transom," including a raft of band music, he says. Over the years he has pulled back on the number of commissions, charged higher rates and added some students and residencies. "I learned it was more important for me to write what I wanted to write. About four years ago, commissions got to the point where they were able to cover expenses."

Perhaps it is business sense, or perhaps his skills as a writer and orchestrator, but these days, Hagen doesn't like to waste time when it comes to music.

"The downside of academia is it is there to create a forum to talk about things," he says, laughing. "In studying with one of the best talkers about music ever born, Bernstein, he wished that he could spend more time composing and less time talking about it."

He hastens to point out that the classical music industry spends a lot of time talking, too.

"It drives me up the wall when I am doing a collaboration. You are the dramaturg, I am the composer. Just do it -- I can sell it both ways. Professionals do it, amateurs talk about it."

Such sour comments belie Hagen's primarily sugary personality -- "my personality to provoke in an affable fashion," he says.

For listeners frustrated with years of off-putting contemporary music, the attraction is the affability of his music -- and at 45, this composer has much more of him in store for us.