La Cetra Barockorchester, Vokalensemble Basel, Andrea Marcon
Biography La Cetra Barockorchester, Vokalensemble Basel, Andrea Marcon
Andrea Marcon
a native of Treviso, Italy, is one of the most recognized musicians and specialists in the field of early music.
Andrea Marcon studied at the Schola Cantorum in Basel as well as with Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jesper Christensen, Harald Vogel, and Ton Koopman. In 1980 he founded the Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca, and in the 1997 the Venice Baroque Orchestra, one of the leading orchestras in the area of Baroque music.
Today, Andrea Marcon is recognized throughout the world as a conductor of Baroque and Classical music. Through his intensive studies of musical tradition, he has succeeded in saving a number of Baroque masterpieces from oblivion.
Well-known soloists, including Magdalena Kozená, Andreas Scholl, Anna Netrebko, Cecilia Bartoli, Angelika Kirschlager, Christine Schaefer, Giuliano Carmignola, Viktoria Mullova, and Katia und Marielle Labèque, enjoy working with him. Andrea Marcon has appeared as a guest in the Royal Albert Hall (Proms) and the Barbican in London, the Théâtre des Champs Elysées and Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Berlin’s Philharmonie, the Tonhalle in Zurich, the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, the Musikverein and the Konzerthaus in Vienna, Lincoln Center und Carnegie Hall in New York, Los Angeles’s Disney Hall, Boston’s Jordan Hall, and Opera City Hall und Kyoi Hall in Tokyo.
Numerous CD recordings that have been awarded the Edison Prize, the Echo-Klassik Prize, the Diapason d’Or, and others bear witness to his work as conductor, organist, and harpsichordist. Andrea Marcon has taught as guest professor at conservatories and universities in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Goteborg, Lyon, Hamburg, London, Seoul, and Tokyo, and has been Professor of harpsichord and organ at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis since 1997.
Andrea Marcon has enjoyed a long-standing friendship with LA CETRA Baroque Orchestra Basel through the mutual “parent house,” the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Mutual projects include the very successful opera productions of Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Vivaldi’s Orlando furioso at the Basel Theater. Baroque bravura arias with the soprano Vivica Genaux have delighted audiences in Switzerland and Istanbul.
Since 2009, Andrea Marcon has been the artistic director of La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel.
La Cetra Barockorchester Basel
was founded in Basel in 1999. The name of the orchestra is taken from the title of Antonio Vivaldi’s printed opus 9, a collection of violin concertos from 1727. “La Cetra” refers to the mythical lyre of the ancient singers, above all Orpheus and Apollo.
With La Cetra, an ensemble stepped onto the international stage that quickly claimed a place among the top historically informed orchestras. Successes at important international festivals and a wide range of broadcast and CD productions document the orchestra’s dynamic development.
The musicians are mostly graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, the Swiss “elite training centre” for early music. Beyond this personnel connection, the ensem- ble also maintains an intensive collaboration with the research department of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis which enables the creative musical process to be accompanied by the latest insights from musicological research. A series of fascinating musical discoveries attest to this approach (Brescianello, Venturini, Paisiello). The repertoire ranges from Monteverdi’s operas of the early seventeenth century up to the major symphonic works of the nineteenth century. Depending on the requirements, the ensemble works with a series of renowned guest conductors (including, for example, Jordi Savall, René Jacobs and Gustav Leonhard) or with direct chamber music interaction.
In 2009 Andrea Marcon was appointed the orchestra’s artistic director.
Ultimately, all efforts serve only a single purpose: to bring to life the music of yesteryear for the people of today – in vital, thrilling, and up-to-date interpretations.
La Cetra Vocal Ensemble
was established by Andrea Marcon and Johannes Keller following the success of the ballet production The Fairy Queen at the Theater Basel in 2012. The majortiy of the members of the choir are graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis - Academy of Ancient Music, where each enjoyed specific training in baroque performance practice.
The Vocal Ensemble performs regularly with the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra, hence broadening and enhancing the repertoire of the orchestra. However the Ensemble also presents concerts independently of the orchestra and looks forward to cooperating with other formations.
The La Cetra Vocal Ensemble's recording debut came with the Nouveau Monde CD on Deutsche Grammophon with Patricia Petibon and La Cetra Baroque Orchestra conducted by Andrea Marcon in works by Rameau and Charpentier.
The high musical and stylistic competence of members of the vocal ensemble in the baroque repertoire is extremely versatile: From the Gregorian Choral Schola over solo occupied chamber formations to large choral ensembles for operas and oratorios.
