Cappella Mediterranea & Leonardo García Alarcón
Biography Cappella Mediterranea & Leonardo García Alarcón
The Ensemble Cappella Mediterranea
was founded in 2005 by Leonardo Garcia Alarcón. As indicated by his name, this ensemble is originally impassioned by the music’s of the Mediterranean basin, and intends to propose another approach of the Latin Baroque music.
10 years later, the repertory of Cappella Mediterranea considerably widened.
With more than 45 concerts per year, the ensemble explores, amongst others, the madrigal, the polyphonic motet and opera. A mixt which gives a very particular style,pervaded by a rare complicity between the director and his musicians.
The enthusiastic encounters of Cappella Mediterranea with some neglected scores, its original reading of the repertory, its concerts mixed with theatre and dance and it’s recordings are highly regarded.
The success in 2010 of Il Diluvio Universale by Michelangelo Falvetti was an outstanding moment. It widened considerably the audience of the ensemble and of Leonardo García Alarcón.
Cappella Mediterranea performs in prestigious venues and festivals: Ambronay, Festival of Saint Denis near Paris, Victoria Hall in Geneva, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris, the Château de Versailles, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Canergie Hall in New-York, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires…The list is endless.
Cappella Mediterranea won great acclaim in 2013 at the opera Festival of Aix-en-Provence with Cavalli’s opera Elena.
Since then, Cappella Mediterranea is considered one of the main ensemble for opera productions and receives many invitations to leading opera houses.In 2016, Cappella introduced Cavalli to the repertory of the National Opera of Paris at the Palais Garnier with Eliogabalo, which was also given at the Opera of Amsterdam in 2017. In 2017, the ensemble also performed again at the opera Festival of Aix-en-Provence, the Royal Opéra of Versailles and the Grand Théâtre of Geneva with Erismena or Il Giasone by Cavalli. In 2018, Cappella Mediterranea will start a residence at Opéra de Dijon for several years.
The discography of Cappella Mediterranea includes around twenty titles on various labels: Ricercar, Naïve, Ambronay and Alpha Classic.
Its recordings of music by BarbaraStrozzi, Giovanni Giorgi, Giuseppe Zamponi and Michelangelo Falvetti are regarded as benchmarks. They gained many awards: Editor’s Choice of BBC, Diamant d’Or of Opéra Magazine, Choc for Classica, Diapason d’Or, ffff forTélérama, etc...
Strozzi Virtuosissima Compositrice has been nominated at the MidemClassical Awards in 2010, Sogno Barocco with Anne Sofie Von Otter was nominated for the Grammy Awards 2013 in Los Angeles. I 7 Peccati Capitali was nominated in the «best recording category» for Les Victoires de la Musique 2017.
Leonardo García Alarcón
After studying the piano in Argentina, Leonardo García Alarcón moved to Europe in 1997 for advanced studies at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève in the harpsichord class of Christiane Jaccottet. He was a member of Ensemble Elyma, and became Gabriel Garrido’s assistant before founding his own ensemble, Cappella Mediterranea, in 2005. From 2010 to 2013, he was in residence at the Centre Culturel de Rencontre d’Ambronay, where he is now an associate artist.
In 2010, he was appointed artistic director and principal conductor of the Choeur de Chambre de Namur. In 2015, he founded the Millenium Orchestra. He is also a professor of harpsichord conducting and Baroque vocal interpretation at the Conservatoire de Musique de Genève.
His discography—with Cappella Mediterranea, the Namur Chamber Choir, and Millenium Orchestra—has received widespread critical acclaim.
As a conductor and harpsichordist, he is invited to perform at festivals and concert halls the world over, including the opera houses of Montpellier, Lyon, Nantes, Rennes, and Lille; Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires; Concertgebouw in Amsterdam; Opéra de Monte-Carlo; Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris; Wigmore Hall in London; and Teatro Massimo in Palermo. He has conducted the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, and Freiburger Barockorchester, among others.
Since its first modern performance under his direction in 2011, Falvetti’s Il diluvio universale has been heard all over Europe, with concerts scheduled in 2016 and 2017 at the Vienna Konzerthaus and venues in Versailles and Geneva.
Following the success of Cavalli’s Elena at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence in 2013, Leonardo García Alarcón also has been invited to appear at international opera houses, including the Teatro de la Zarzuela in Madrid, Opéra national de Paris, and Dutch National Opera and Ballet in Amsterdam.
In 2017, he will conduct three of Cavalli’s operas: Giasone in Geneva, Erismena in Aix-en-Provence, and Eliogabalo in Amsterdam. He also will lead Monteverdi’s Orfeo in Europe this spring, before taking it on tour to South America next fall.
