Albert Recasens

Born in Cambrils (Tarragona). He began his musical studies under the auspices of his father, the teacher and conductor Ángel Recasens, principally in the Professional Conservatory of Vilaseca y Salou. He perfected his knowledge of music at the Escola de Música in Barcelona, the Stedelijk Conservatorium van Brugge and the Koninklijk Conservatorium Gent (piano, conducting, choir singing, history of music and music composition). He attended several courses and seminars on music teaching, choir singing and conducting (Jorma Panula, Roland Börger). At the same time, he studied for a degree in musicology at the Catholic University of Louvain, in both the Dutch and French sections, and was awarded his doctorate degree in 2001 for a thesis on stage music in 18th century Madrid.

Since then he has combined performance, management and musicological research, with the conviction that an interdisciplinary approach and total commitment are necessary for the promotion of forgotten musical heritage. He has published musicological studies in various journals and encyclopaedias, both nationally and abroad, and has completed critical editions of Rodríguez de Hita’s zarzuela Briseida for the Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, and his Canciones instrumentales for the Fundación Caja Madrid (forthcoming), as well as Alonso Lobo’s Liber primus missarum for the Government of Andalucía. Likewise, he has been involved in research projects on the tonadilla escénica (popular stage song) (UAM), the “Sólo Madrid es Corte” network and the Aula Música Poética (University of Barcelona). He has taught at the University of Valencia and the Autonomous University of Madrid. At present his teaching activities take place principally at the University of Carlos III in Madrid (Masters Degree in Cultural Management) and the University of Valladolid (Early Music Courses).

In June 2005, together with his father, he began an ambitious project for the recovery of Spanish musical heritage in order to close gaps in the public institutions and universities, by founding La Grande Chapelle and the Lauda record label, culminating a whole process of historical recuperation from rigorous scientific research through to musical performance. Since that time it has brought to light unreleased works from the 17th and 18th centuries (J. P. Pujol, C. Patiño, C. Galán, J. García de Salazar, F. Valls, J. de Nebra, A. Rodríguez de Hita, F. J. García Fajer, J. Lidón, etc.) in the form of premieres or first-time recordings thus contributing to the spread of neglected cultural heritage. As well as garnering praise from both public and critics alike, La Grande Chapelle, Lauda and its “Música Poetica” collection, are considered a paradigm of knowledge transfer to the socioeconomic milieu by the Humanities and Social Sciences section of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (the High Council for Scientific Reseach) (CSIC).

In August 2007, he took over the reins as artistic director of La Grande Chapelle. Since then he has conducted numerous concerts of both polyphony and baroque music, outstanding among which were those given at the National Auditorium in Madrid, the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Oster-Klang Festival in Vienna, the Nezahualcóytl Auditorium and the International Cervantino Festival in Mexico. Among the theatre music premieres we must mention Calderón’s Universal Peace auto sacramental at the Cuenca Religious Music Week (together with Antiqua Escena and Ana Yepes) and the Ramón Garay’s opera A Concise Compendium of the Spanish Revolution (1815) in Ubeda, Oviedo and Vigo. His recent recordings for Lauda include the reconstruction of the Easter Celebrations in the Piazza Navona in the time of T.L. de Victoria and the CD dedicated to masses by Alonso Lobo.

Since 2008 he collaborates with INGENIO (CSIC-UPV) in the study of the processes of innovation and knowledge transfer in the field of early music; currently involved in the project "Study on the innovation and the exchange and transfer of knowledge in the field of cultural heritage" (2014-2016) that is being developed at this institute.