Conductor, organist, and harpsichordist Andrea Marcon is one of the most renowned musicians and specialists for early music. He was born in Treviso and 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. Today Andrea Marcon is internationally recognized as a leading interpreter for music of the Classic and Early Romantic periods.
In 1997, he founded the Venice Baroque Orchestra (VBO), today one of the leading baroque ensembles in the world. In 2009 Andrea Marcon also became the music director of the La Cetra Barockorchester Basel and he was appointed artistic director of the Orquesta Ciudad de Granada from the season 2013.
Andrea Marcon is a regular guest conductor at the Frankfurt Opera (Giasone, Ariodante, Orlando Furioso, Medée) and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and he has been invited by the WDR, HR, NDR and RSB symphony orchestras, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, Danish National Orchestra, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Luzern Sinfonie Orchester, Bremer Philharmoniker, Camerata Salzburg and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. In October 2012 he made his highly acclaimed debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and 2015 with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks. Furthermore he worked regularly with the Freiburger Barockorchester and Concerto Köln.
In 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 he interprets a production of Alcina at Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow for the first time.
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.
Mr. Marcon recorded more than 50 CDs. For his recordings as organist and harpsichordist he was awarded four times with the Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik prize. Mr. Marcon’s recordings as conductor 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 Klassik Award and the Edison Prize.
For Sony Classical, he recorded seven albums from 1999 to 2003 – as conductor of the Venice Baroque Orchestra 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 Giuliano 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. With La Cetra Barockorchester Basel he recorded Caldaras „La concordia de pianeti“, 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. His latest release with Erato/Warner was a recording of Nicola Porpova’s arais for Farinelli with Venice Baroque Orchestra and Philippe Jaroussky.
Mr. Marcon is professor of harpsichord, organ and interpretation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and lives in Basel and Treviso.