Venice Baroque Orchestra
Founded in 1997 by Baroque scholar and harpsichordist Andrea Marcon, Venice Baroque
Orchestra is recognized as one of the premier ensembles devoted to period instrument
performance. Committed to the rediscovery of 17th- and 18th-century masterpieces, the
orchestra has received wide critical acclaim for its concert and opera performances
throughout North America, Europe, South America, Japan, and Korea.
Highlights from last season included the opening of the Concertgebouw Brugge season with
Vivaldi's Stabat mater and Gloria; concerts in Lisbon and France with soprano
Patricia Petibon; concert performances of Metastasio's L'Olimpiade in
London, Dijon, Brussels, Paris, Athens, Rome, and Siena; performances with violinist
Giuliano Carmignola at the Festivalul George Enescu, Menuhin Festival Gstaad, and Dubrovnik
Summer Festival; and concerts in Italy and Russia with mezzo-soprano Romina Basso and in
Poland with Simone Kermes.
The orchestra's first album for Naïve Records-a pasticcio of Metastasio's
L'Olimpiade featuring the recording premieres of many 18th-century opera
arias-was released in 2012 and has been awarded CHOC du Monde de la Musique. Venice Baroque
Orchestra has an extensive discography with Sony and Deutsche Grammophon. Its
world-premiere recording of Andromeda liberata for Deutsche Grammophon was
followed by two recordings of violin concertos with Giuliano Carmignola; an album of
Vivaldi sinfonias and concertos for strings; Vivaldi motets and arias with soprano Simone
Kermes, two discs with Magdalena Kožená; Vivaldi concertos for two violins with Viktoria
Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola; and Italian arias with Patricia Petibon. The orchestra's
earlier discography on Sony with Ms. Carmignola includes The Four Seasons, two
albums of previously unrecorded Vivaldi concertos, Locatelli violin concertos, and a
collection of Bach arias that feature Angelika Kirchschlager. For its recordings, Venice
Baroque Orchestra has been honored with the Diapason d'Or, ECHO Music Award, and the Edison
Award.
In addition to frequent radio broadcast of their concerts, the orchestra has been seen
worldwide through several television specials, including films by the BBC, ARTE, NTR (The
Netherlands), and NHK. It has been the subject of three recent video recordings in Romania,
Croatia, Lisbon; and its performances will also be featured on Swiss television in an
upcoming documentary on Vivaldi.
Andrea Marcon
Italian organist, harpsichordist, and conductor Andrea Marcon is one of the most acclaimed
musicians in early music. Born in Treviso, he studied organ and harpsichord with
Jean-Claude Zehnder at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He won first prize at the organ
competition in Innsbruck in 1986 and first prize in the harpsichord competition in Bologna
in 1991.
Mr. Marcon founded the Venice Baroque Orchestra in 1997. His dedication to the rediscovery
of Baroque opera led to the first modern-day stagings of 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 US premiere of Siroe at the Brooklyn Academy
of Music.
Today, Mr. Marcon is widely recognized as a leading interpreter of the Baroque, Classical,
and early-Romantic repertoire. He has directed Germany's WDR, HR, and NDR symphony
orchestras, in addition to the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Radio Symphony
Orchestra, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, L'Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo, Orquesta
Ciudad de Granada, Mozarteum Salzburg, Camerata Salzburg, Lucerne Symphony Orchestra,
Philharmonie Essen, and Bremer Philharmoniker, among many others.
Over the past six years, Mr. Marcon has been a frequent guest conductor at Theater Basel,
leading La Cetra Baroque Orchestra in Monteverdi's Orfeo, Cavalli's
Calisto, Handel's Ariodante, Vivaldi's Orlando Furioso, Mozart's
Idomeneo, and Purcell's Fairy Queen. At Opera Theatre Frankfurt, he has
conducted Charpentier's Médée, Orlando Furioso, Ariodante, and
Cavalli's Giasone. Mr. Marcon has led the Venice Baroque Orchestra in most of the
prestigious concert halls and festivals around the world. In October 2012, he made his
debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker; in the summer of 2014, he is scheduled to make his
debut at the Aix-en-Provence Festival.
Mr. Marcon has more than 50 CDs to his credit. For his recordings as organist and
harpsichordist, he has been awarded four times with the Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. His
recordings as conductor have also received numerous accolades, including the Diapason d'Or,
Choc du Monde de la Musique, Vivaldi Award of the Cini Foundation, Germany's ECHO music
award, and Holland's Edison Award. Among his many CDs with the Venice Baroque Orchestra for
Sony Classical and Deutsche Grammophon are albums with Magdalena Kožená, Patricia Petibon,
Angelika Kirchschlager, Giuliano Carmignola, Simone Kermes, and Viktoria Mullova. With La
Cetra, he has recorded Mozart overtures and arias with Mojca Erdmann.
Mr. Marcon is professor of organ and harpsichord at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Since
September 2012, he has been artistic director of the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada in
Spain.