Maestro al cembalo and conducting of baroque ensembles
Conceived of in 2005 by the orchestra and choir conductor, harpsichord player and professor Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, the Maestro al cembalo and conducting of baroque ensembles (Baroque Lab) class prepares instrumentalists, conductors and singers for the conducting of instrumental and/or vocal ensembles in the field of historical interpretation. The class also prepares students for greater familiarity with the baroque opera repertoire.
With an inclination and vocation for reinjecting life into little-known works by the likes of Sacrati, Draghi, Falvetti, D’India and Cavalli, and the sacred polyphonies from the 16th century to those of J.S. Bach, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon invites students to share his experiences as a basso continuo performer, orchestra conductor and choir conductor. The students can thereby complete their musical training by dedicating themselves to conducting baroque ensembles from the keyboard and/or from another instrument, something that was standard practice in Italy in the late 17th century and the 18th century. The students, whether they are keyboard-players or not, are also trained in how to prepare singers from the keyboard, while performing the basso continuo. Numerous keyboard-based instruments are used in order to access a diverse range of repertoires: harpsichords, organs, the pianoforte, the clavichord and the piano.
The Maestro al cembalo and conducting of baroque ensembles at the Haute école de musique de Genève (HEM) explores numerous areas: working with the text and the language, accompaniment, improvisation, basso continuo, tactus and different tempi, the vocal line, composition and writing. The practice, multidisciplinary and transversal, is enriched by the study of handwritten scores, excerpts, comparative listening to musical interpretations, and the sharing of feedback and anecdotes. At the heart of this process of collective work, human relationships are also explored, in order to find avenues and tools for communicating with musicians in the best possible way, in the context of an artistic production.
The students are regularly invited to follow Leonardo Garcia Alarcon’s rehearsals with his ensemble, Cappella Mediterranea at La Cité Bleue, or elsewhere, in order to discover the process of creating dramatic and orchestral works in real conditions.
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