Conductor, organist, harpsichordist, and scholar ANDREA MARCON is a leading specialist and performer of early music. Born in Treviso, Marcon received a diploma in Early Music from Basel's Schola Cantorum Basiliensis for his organ and harpsichord studies with Jean-Claude Zehnder. He then won first prize in the organ competition at Innsbruck in 1986 and, in 1991, first prize for harpsichord at Bologna.

Today, Marcon is widely recognized as a leading interpreter of the Baroque and Classical periods. In 1997, he founded the Venice Baroque Orchestra (VBO) 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), Handel's Siroe (2000), and, at Venice's Teatro Malibran, Cimarosa's L'Olimpiade (2001). In April 2004, Marcon conducted the VBO in the United States premiere of Siroe at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.

In December 2006 he led the Frankfurt Opera in a production of Cavalli's Giasone, and in 2004 he directed the company in Achim Freyer's production of Ariodante. He has conducted the Cologne Radio Orchestra, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Granada State Orchestra, and the KammerAkademie Potsdam in repertoire of Bach, Boccherini, Haydn, Manuel Garciá, Mozart, and Beethoven. In 2006 he led the modern-day premieres of Vivaldi's Atenaide in Siena and Galuppi's L'Olimpiade in Venice. He recently brought together for the very first time violinists Viktoria Mullova and Giuliano Carmignola for performances of Baroque double-concertos in Spain and Austria.

In 2004/05, Marcon led the VBO in the modern-day premiere of Andromeda liberata at the Venice Music Festival. Subsequent performances were given in Boston, New York, Amsterdam, London, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Tenerife, Tokyo, and Osaka. He conducted the VBO on tour with the Labèque sisters in the United States, and with Carmignola in Europe and Japan. As soloist, he gave organ recitals in Denmark, Germany, and Japan, and appeared as harpsichordist with Carmignola in Rotterdam and Schwetzingen.

For his recordings as organist, Marcon has been four times awarded the Deutschen Schallplatten Kritik prize. Marcon's recordings as conductor have also received several accolades, including the Diapason D'Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, 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 VBO with Giuliano Carmignola and mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager, and as harpsichordist with Carmignola and Anner Bylsma. Marcon and the VBO now record exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon; releases to date are Andromeda liberata; two recordings of Baroque concertos with Carmignola; an album of Vivaldi sinfonias and concertos for strings; and Vivaldi motets with soprano Simone Kermes.

Marcon is professor of harpsichord, organ, and interpretation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. He was founding harpsichordist and organist for the Treviso-based early music ensemble, Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca (1983-1997). He also founded, and served as artistic director of the International Organ Festival "Città di Treviso," where he helped facilitate the restoration of the city's historic organs. Marcon's teachers included Luigi Ferdinando Tagliavini, Hans van Nieuwkoop, Jesper Christensen, Harald Vogel, and Ton Koopman.

01/07