Italian conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and scholar, Andrea Marcon, is… Read Full Bio ↴Italian conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and scholar, Andrea Marcon, is a leading specialist and performer of early music. He studied with Vanni Ussardi, gaining diplomas in organ and harpsichord. He continued his studies at the Basel Music Academy's Schola Cantorum Basiliensis from 1983 to 1987 under Jean-Claude Zehnder, Jesper Christensen and Jordi Savall, amongst others, and graduated in Early Music, Organ and Harpsichord. At this time he also began specializing in Italian music with Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini. Other influential teachers included Hans van Nieuwkoop, Harald Vogel and Ton Koopman.

In 1985 Andrea Marcon was a prize-winner in the International Bach-Handel Competition of Bruges (Belgium) and in 1986 he received at Colmar in France the Regio-Förderpreis für Musik award instituted by the Academies of Basel, Strasbourg and Freiburg i.Br. For the publisher Gaus, he prepared the modern edition of previously unpublished works by Girolamo Frescobaldi Fioretti and Claudio Merula Il primo libro dei Ricercari. He won the first prize of the International Paul Hofhaimer Organ Competition in Innsbruck in 1986 and the first prize in the Harpsichord Competition of Bologna in 1991.

Andrea Marcon was founding harpsichordist and organist for the Treviso-based early music ensemble, Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca (1983-1997). He also founded in 1989, and served as artistic director of the International Organ Festival Città di Treviso e della Marca Trevigiana, where he helped facilitate the restoration of the city’s historic organs. In 1990 he founded the European Academy of Castel Coldrano (Val Venosta), and in 1995 the Organ Academy Città di Treviso. In 1997, Andrea Marcon founded the Venice Baroque Orchestra with some of Italy’s finest period instrumentalists and has since led the group to international acclaim. His dedication to the rediscovery of Baroque opera masterpieces led to the first modern-day stagings of Francesco Cavalli’s L’Orione (1998), Georg Frideric Handel’s Siroe (2000) and, at Venice’s Teatro Malibran, Cimarosa’s L’Olimpiade (2001). In April, 2004, he led the Venice Baroque Orchestra in the USA premiere of Siroe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York.

Highly active as a concert performer, Andrea Marcon has played in the most prestigious festivals and musical centres of Europe - as organist, harpsichordist, and with the instrumental ensemble the Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca &045 recording as well for various television and radio networks. His CD The heritage of Frescobaldi & Nacchini Organ, 1750 on Divox Antiqua) was awarded in 1996 with the renowned Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik and The Antonio Vivaldi International Disc Award for Early Italian Music as the best artistic production of 1996 & Instrumental music sector. The following CD Sonatas for Organ by Domenico Scarlatti (Divox) won in 1997 as well the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik.

Andrea Marcon's recordings as conductor have also received several accolades, including the Diapason D’Or, the Vivaldi Award of the Cini Foundation, and Germany’s Echo Award. For Sony Classical, he recorded seven albums from 1999 through 2003 - as conductor of the Venice Baroque Orchestra with Giuliano Carmignola and Angelika Kirchschlager, and as harpsichordist with Giuliano Carmignola and Anner Bylsma. In 2003, Andrea Marcon and the Venice Baroque Orchestra signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon. Upcoming releases include Italian violin concertos (with Giuliano Carmignola), Antonio Vivaldi motets (with soprano Simone Kermes), and A. Vivaldi sinfonias.

In 2002, Andrea Marcon conducted the Venice Baroque Orchestra on highly acclaimed debuts at the Concertgebouw, Aldeburgh, the Proms, and in twenty cities across North America. In May 2003, he led Bach arias featuring Angelika Kirchschlager in Cologne, London, Paris and Vienna. In season 2003-2004, Andrea Marcon and the Orchestra performed throughout Germany and the USA, at festivals in Lucerne, Ambronay, Passau, Eisenach, and in concert at Zürich, Paris, Geneva, Lyon, and Basel. Andrea Marcon opened the 2004-2005 season at the first annual Venice Music Festival in October, where he led the Venice Baroque Orchestra in the modern-day premiere of Andromeda Liberata.

In the 2004-2005 season, Andrea Marcon will appear in solo organ recitals in Denmark, Germany, and Japan, and on harpsichord with violinist Giuliano Carmignola in Rotterdam and Schwetzingen. He will also reprise his spring 2004 conducting debut at the Frankfurt Opera with a return to Achim Freyer’s production of G.F. Handel’s Ariodante, and rejoin the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln at Cologne for a program of Mozart orchestral works. In 2005, he will lead the Orchestra on a North American tour of Bach keyboard concertos with Katia & Marielle Labèque, as well as in concert at Metz, Bordeaux, Amsterdam, and Munich, among others.

Andrea Marcon is professor of harpsichord, organ and interpretation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel, Switzerland), and served as visiting professor at the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam. He has held master-classes and summer courses at Pistoia, Roskilde, Goteburg, Muri, Alkmaar, Nuremburg, Stade and Bielefeld, Les Andeleys, Daroca, and for the Music Academies of Toulouse, Hamburg, Copenhagen and Karlsruhe, as well as for the North German Organ Academy directed by Harald Vogel. He has been invited to take part in the jury of the International Pachelbel Competition of Nuremburg, the Schnitger Competition of Alkmaar/Amsterdam, and the Callido Competition of Borca di Cadore.