Andrea Marcon

Biography

Conductor, organist, and harpsichordist Andrea Marcon was born in Treviso. He received a diploma in Early Music from Basel’s Schola Cantorum Basiliensis for his organ and harpsichord studies with Jean-Claude Zehnder and conducting with Hans Martin Linde. He won first prize in the organ competition at Innsbruck in 1986 and, in 1991, first prize for harpsichord at Bologna. He also studied with Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jesper Christensen, Harald Vogel and Ton Koopman.

Mr. Marcon founded the Venice Baroque Orchestra (VBO) in 1997 and has since led the group to international acclaim. His dedication to the rediscovery of Baroque opera led to the first modern-day stagings of Francesco Cavalli’s L’Orione (1998), Handel’s Siroe (2000), Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade (2001) and Galuppi’s L’Olimpiade (2006). In April 2004, Mr. Marcon conducted the United States premiere of Siroe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. In spring 2008 he conducted 20 sold-out performances of a new production of Monteverdi’s Orfeo with La Cetra in Basel.

Mr. Marcon is widely recognized as a leading interpreter of the Baroque and Classical periods. He is a regular guest conductor at the Frankfurt Opera, and he has been invited by the WDR, HR, NDR and RSB symphony orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Danish National Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra of Granada, where he has been appointed artistic director from the season 2012/13. In October 2012 he made his highly acclaimed debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra with a pure Vivaldi program including Vivaldi’s Gloria. He has been heralded for his performances of Marcello’s Il trionfo della Musica e della Poesia; Vivaldi’s Orlando Furioso, Atenaide, Tito Manlio, Gloria, Magnificat, Juditha Triumphans; Cavalli’s Calisto and Giasone; Monteverdi’s Orfeo and Vespers; Handel’s Messiah, Ariodante and Alcina; and Bach’s cantatas and Mass in B minor. His repertoire also spans Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert symphonies and early Rossini operas.

In the fall of 2013 he was on an extensive tour with Philippe Jaroussky and VBO in Europe. In January 2014 he conducted a world premiere of a Caldara opera with La Cetra at the Konzerthaus Dortmund, which has been recorded by Deutsche Grammophon. He made his debut in Aix-en-Provence in the summer of 2014 with the Freiburger Barockorchester and an Ariodante production and in the summer of 2015 he was there with an Alcina production. In February 2015 Andrea Marcon debuted in Munich with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Mr. Marcon has recorded more than 50 CDs. For his recordings as organist and harpsichordist he has been awarded four times with the Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik prize. Mr. Marcon’s recordings as conductor have also received several accolades, including the Diapason D’Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Vivaldi Award of the Cini Foundation, Germany’s Echo Award and the Edison Prize. For Sony Classical, he recorded seven albums from 1999 through 2003—as conductor of the VBO with Giuliano Carmignola and mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager, and as harpsichordist with Mr. Carmignola and Anner Bylsma. For Deutsche Grammophon, releases to date include Andromeda liberata, two albums of Baroque concertos with Mr. Carmignola, albums of Vivaldi motets and opera arias with soprano Simone Kermes, string concertos and sinfonias of Vivaldi, and CDs of Handel and Vivaldi arias with Magdalena Kožená, arias with Patricia Petibon and Venice Baroque Orchestra. His latest DGG releases with the Suisse based baroque ensemble La Cetra,where he is artists director since 2009, include all Mozart Ouvertures and Mozart arias with Mojca Erdmann, as well as the highly acclaimed recording Nouveau Monde with Patricia Petibon that was released in October 2012. „Jaroussky-Farinelli“ at Erato/Warner Classics is his latest recording with the Venice Baroque Orchestra and Philippe Jaroussky with arias of Porpora., released in September 2013.

Mr. Marcon is professor of harpsichord, organ and interpretation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. In 1982 he was the founding harpsichordist and organist for the Treviso-based ensemble, Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca (1982-1997). He also founded and served as artistic director of the International Organ Festival “Città di Treviso,” where he helped facilitate the restoration of the city’s historic organs.