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Andrea Marcon

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Andrea Marcon is an Italian conductor, organist and harpsichordist, born on 6 February 1963 in Treviso. He studied organ and harpsichord with Vanni Ussardi and in 1983 went to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel. There he worked with Jean-Claude Zehnder, Jesper Christensen and Jordi Savall, among others. In 1987 he obtained his diplomas in early music, organ and harpsichord. He then specialised in Italian Baroque music with Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini. He won prizes at organ competitions in Innsbruck in 1986 and Bologna in 1991.

Music and breakthrough

Marcon became a lecturer at the Schola Cantorum in Basel and a visiting professor at the Sweelinck Conservatory in Amsterdam. He founded several ensembles and festivals, such as Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca in 1983 and, in 1997, the Venice Baroque Orchestra, of which he is the conductor. His early records were organ and harpsichord works, such as Sonate per Organo from 1997. Later came recordings of Baroque opera and concertos, including with Vivaldi and Handel. For these he worked with the violinist Giuliano Carmignola and the singer Magdalena Kožená. He also recorded The Four Seasons in 2000. In 2021 he received the Handel Prize.

Influence

Marcon shows how musicians who play early music in a historically informed way, with lively tempos and plenty of rhythmic energy, bring an eighteenth-century repertoire back to life. In this way he contributed to the rediscovery of the Venetian Baroque.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to The Four Seasons in Marcon's performance and notice the colour of the strings and the harpsichord. Can you hear how the orchestra paints the seasons with sharp accents?

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists