11/07/2025
Ole Hass, May 31, 1968 – October 26, 2025
Obituary written by Christine Doran
Ole Hass was born in Hamburg, Germany on May 31, 1968. He died on October 26,
2025, aged 57, in the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, of complications after a
long battle with cancer.
His mother was Jutta Witte Hass and his father was Gunter Paul Hass. Ole is survived
by his wife Ingrid Cowan Hass, children Eva and Cecilia, older brother Bodo Hass and
younger half-brother Jan Guhl.
Ole sang for many years as a boy soprano in St Michael’s Cathedral in Hamburg, an
experience that laid the foundations for a life steeped in music. After finishing high
school at Gymnasium Corveystrasse he chose to undertake civil service rather than
military service and went to court in order to avoid jail and prove his commitment as a
conscientious objector. He did this work for almost four years, first caring for children
with mental disabilities and later providing home care to elderly people.
At the age of 22, after hearing a recording of renowned German tenor Fritz Wunderlich
singing Schubert’s Art Songs, he left his study of biochemistry to focus on classical
singing. A year later, in 1991, he met Ingrid, then a Smith College student of art and
music studying abroad at the University of Hamburg. Both living in the music dorm,
they were each assigned a shelf in the same mini-fridge. During that year they went to
many concerts together and romance quickly blossomed. Between semesters that winter,
they travelled around European cities and gave their first concert together in Hamburg
in the spring of 1992. Subsequently, Ole came to the USA to pursue a master’s degree in
opera at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, and he and Ingrid
were married on June 29, 1996, at her family church, St Francis Episcopal, in
Rutherfordton, N.C.
Ole and Ingrid moved to Greenbelt, Maryland, in 1998 for Ole to take up a fellowship
from the University of Maryland in College Park. He earned his doctorate in musical
arts in classical singing there in 2002 and after graduation worked as associate editor at
RIPM (Retrospective Index to Music Periodicals), indexing German music periodicals,
for 10 years. At this time he was also performing as a soloist all over the greater
Washington, D.C., area, singing with the Washington Bach Consort, Cantate Chamber
Singers, the New Dominion Chorale, the City Choir of Washington and at the
Kennedy Center Concert Hall. He performed the role of the Evangelist in Bach’s St
John Passion at the National Cathedral and at Strathmore to great acclaim. He sang
many lead roles in Gilbert and Sullivan operettas with the Washington Savoyards and
performed with small opera companies such as IN Series, the Opera Theatre of
Northern Virginia and Washington National Opera Chorus. In addition to Bach, he
sang all the main tenor roles of Mozart’s operas. He sang Art Song, often with Ingrid, in
hundreds of venues, from churches to embassies as well as concert halls.
At age 37 Ole became a father. This role was a cornerstone of his existence, and he was a
most loving and giving parent. He loved reading aloud to his family, and making music
and baking with his children. As they grew older, he was always available to help with
math homework. He loved to take biking vacations with his family and playing complex
role-playing and tabletop games of strategy and chance. With help from with his own
father, a carpenter, he remodeled the family house on Northway, built an addition and a
deck, refurbished the basement and made countless other improvements.
Ole became a US citizen in 2010. After RIPM, he worked for two years at Acorn Hill
Waldorf School in Silver Spring as an assistant teacher. This experience in part inspired
the puppetry shows that he and Ingrid began to develop and perform in 2012.
At age 43 Ole was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and his father died
of cancer that year. CLL is a chronic and treatable cancer, and Ole was able to
participate in medical trials at NIH that proved very effective. In 2012, he and Ingrid
started Beech Tree Puppets and in 2015 he took a position as a German language coach
with the prestigious Young Artists program at the National Washington Opera — a job
he loved, working with the best new singers of the nation. In 2023, however, Ole’s
chronic leukemia transformed into a rare central nervous system lymphoma in his brain,
which he fought through aggressive treatment over the next two years. The treatment
was successful, but, quite suddenly in October 2025, he succumbed to a rare form of
pneumonia that can affect people with weakened immune systems, as his was due to the
years of cancer treatment.
Ole was a loving husband and caring father, with a warm heart and a huge intellect. He
had a gentle soul, kind and giving, and was patient and positive in his endurance,
constantly upright. He was a gifted musician, storyteller and puppeteer; witty, smart
and creative. With the puppet shows that he and Ingrid conceived and performed, he
wanted to bring healing and nourishment to children through storytelling with
wholesome images and beautiful music. A creative problem-solver and collaborator, he
found grounding in handywork and construction, making the wooden set pieces for the
shows and writing the music. The puppet shows were perfectly choreographed duets in
action and song that brought delight to the youngest and oldest viewers; in a way, they
were a perfect representation of the interwoven support and equal partnership of Ole
and Ingrid’s marriage of two artists.
The Hass family’s long journey through Ole’s illness has been eased by the love and
support of the Greenbelt community. A small, family-only funeral took place in late
October and a larger celebration of Ole’s life will be organized for January, with details
to come.
