Leonardo García Alarcón

Passionate about vocal music and a keen musicologist, Leonardo García Alarcón explores the particular aesthetics of Latin baroque music and their influence on the baroque music of the north. The north-south/south-north journey, with its diversity of languages and tastes, is for him an ideal research ground and creative force. He is considered as one of the leading artists of the new generation of orchestral conductors.
Born in 1976 in Argentina, Leonardo García Alarcón began his piano studies at the age of six, becoming familiar with the practice of bass continuo when he was fifteen. In 1997 he continued his harpsichord studies with Christine Jaccottet at the Geneva Centre for Early Music. In 2005 he founded the ensemble La Cappella Mediterranea, and in 2008 began a close artistic collaboration with the mezzo-soprano Anne-Sofie von Otter leading to concerts at Ambronay, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and Wigmore Hall in London.
In January 2010, Leonardo García Alarcón became artistic director of the Chamber Choir of Namur, and in the same year began a three-year residency at the Ambronay Cultural Encounter Centre.
For Ambronay Editions, he has recorded discs of music by Peter Philips (**** Monde de la Musique) and Barbara Strozzi (ffff Télérama, Choc de Classica, finalist in the Midem Classical Awards 2009). He has also recorded Handel's Judas Maccabaeus with the Chamber Choir of Namur (Supersonic Award – Pizzicato, M – Mezzo), Purcell's Dido and Aeneas, a disc of Vivaldi, Vespro a San Marco (Choc de Classica) and Il diluvio universale of Falvetti in September 2011.