Rolf Haas

Born in Minneapolis, MN, Rolf Haas made his solo debut when he was 14 years old with The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under conductor Lynn Harrell, and has since enjoyed a diverse and far-reaching musical life.

In 2013, after years of study with primary mentors Harry Nordstrom, Sally O’Reilly and Yair Kless, Haas was given an opportunity to play as part of the same Grammy-Award winning Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, with which he made his solo debut. He has played in the SPCO for the last 10 seasons, during which he has acted as section leader, performed chamber music, played on recordings, educated through community outreach, explored performance styles from the Baroque period to the present day, and collaborated with artists such as Joshua Bell, Andrew Manze, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Gil Shaham, Thomas Zehetmair, Pekka Kuusisto, Richard Egarr and Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

Haas plays the violin on which Louis Krasner debuted the Violin Concertos of Alban Berg and Arnold Schönberg. Krasner sold the violin to Haas' grandfather, Harry Nordstrom, who then played on it for most of his professional career. In 2013, when studying in Austria, Haas won an opportunity to tour as soloist playing the Berg Violin Concerto in halls such as the Palace of Arts (Budapest, Hungary) and Lisinski Concert Hall (Zagreb, Croatia) and others. It was then that Haas’ grandfather gave him the violin to play for the first time.

He has performed as Second Violin Leader of Kammerakademie Potsdam (Germany), played on a recording with Kammerakademie Postdam with Pianists Evgeni Koroliov and Anna Vinnitskaya, performed with the Münchener Kammerorchester (Germany) and acted as Associate Concertmaster of the Grazer Kammerorchester (Austria). Haas believes strongly in the importance of cultural stylistic exchange and remains active in Europe.

Haas' festival life reflects his interest in both this cultural stylistic exchange as well as his interest in the stylistic language of all eras of classical music. Haas has performed in such diverse Concert Halls as the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Gerald R. Ford Amphitheater at Bravo! Vail Music Festival, the KKL Luzern Concert Hall, Beckwith Recital Hall at the Fargo Chamber Music Festival, and the Konzerthaus Berlin. Recent festival highlights for Haas have been appearances at Festival Mozaic both as Concertmaster and chamber musician, ötztal Meisterkurs in Tirol, Austria as jury member, Bach Roots Festival as Concertmaster of a period performance ensemble, and Mattheiser Sommerakademie in Germany as Guest Lecturer. He has taken part in Festivals ranging from the Meadowmount School of Music where he performed chamber music with Ulf Hoelscher, to the International Sommerakademie in Salzburg; From the Summer Academy of Music in Krakow, Poland, to the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival where he worked closely on new works with composer Kaija Saariaho.

In 2021, Haas was named Blake School’s Young Alumnus of the Year, and in the same year received a Performance Leadership Certificate online from Cornell. He has recently been featured on National Public Radio’s “Performance Today."

From early on, Haas' music journey has also involved genres outside of classical music. Playing in bands since he was 12 years old, Haas has also been acknowledged and respected both as a punk rock and a hip-hop artist (emcee/producer). His former group, Nocturnal Unit, released 3 full-length albums and an E.P. Their final songs and recordings combined compositional techniques of conversational chamber music with the sonic palette of hip-hop, and hardcore punk. Currently, he is involved with a project called 13 Odd House, through which he will release new creative projects such as writings, music, and a movie/recital series: of which the first film, House of Mysterious Secrets, was screened in theaters and on television in 2022 and featured the music of Bach and Górecki. House of Mysterious Secrets was also picked up and adapted to a full-length radio special by KYMN in the same year.

Haas is excited to be joining the Phoenix Symphony as Concertmaster starting in the 2024.25 season.