Artists
Glaswegian Mezzo Beth Taylor, lauded for her “strong presence”, “sensational coloratura” and “intriguing depth”, is on the onset of a major international career. She is the 3rd prize winner of the 2019 Wigmore Hall Competition, and grand winner of the prestigious 2022 Elizabeth Connell Prize for dramatic voices. She has performed at the Deutsche Oper Berlin, Oper Frankfurt Glyndebourne Festival, Opernhaus Zürich or Auditorio de Madrid with roles as Erda and Erste Norn (Der Ring des Nibelungen), Bianca (Bianca e Falliero), Bradamente (Alcina), Arsace (Semiramide) or Cornelia (Giulio Cesare). She is in very high demand across Europe’s concert platforms also in song and oratorio. She has performed with notable ensembles including the Dunedin Consort, Capella Mediterranea, the Ricercare Ensemble and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and with notable pianists as Julius Drake, Jonathan Ware, and rising star Hamish Brown.
Nascut el 2006, inicia els seus estudis musicals a Malgrat de Mar. Actualment, estudia amb Peter Thiemann, professor al Conservatori Superior Liceu. Ha assistit també a masterclasses amb Daniel Mitnitsky, Hilel Zori i Gary Hoffman, i durant els últims anys ha participat en els cursos de l'Acadèmia Internacional de Música de Solsona. Ha actuat al Gran Teatre del Liceu, el Paranimf de la Universitat de Barcelona, el teatre i la catedral de Solsona, i a Cervera de la Marenda, entre altres llocs. El juny de 2023 va ser el solista d'una orquestra de trenta violoncels organitzada per motiu de celebració de la diada Pau Casals, dirigida pel mestre Antoni Ros Marbà, i forma part de la Jove Orquestra Nacional de Catalunya. Toca amb un violoncel Laberte del 1921 cedit per la Fundació Pau Casals, un instrument que va pertànyer al mateix Pau Casals.
Born in Castro Urdiales (Cantabria Region), in 2006 Carmen Santamaría entered the Higher School of Music of the Basque Country (Musikene), specialising in chamber music. With grants from the Cantabrian and Hungarian governments, in 2011 she travelled to Budapest, where she became a part-time student of piano and chamber music, and in 2013 she began her master’s degree studies in Interpretation. In 2015, Carmen took a master’s degree in Lied at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC), where she collaborated as a pianist from 2016 to 2018. Since 2011, Carmen Santamaría has performed in various venues in Budapest, Barcelona, Alicante, Tarragona, Galicia, Mexico City, Bilbao, Santander and León, as well as in the LIFE Victoria, Aurora (Stockholm) and Talent Barcelona festivals. Likewise, since 2018 she has collaborated with the visual artist Inés García on the projects Winterreise and Sis cançons populars muntanyeses. She forms a duo with the soprano Mireia Tarragó.
Precise vocal control, clear diction, intelligent musicality and an ability to get to the heart of everything he sings ensure Christoph Prégardien’s place among the world’s foremost lyric tenors. He performs regularly with orchestras from around the world, including the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, Staatskapelle Dresden, and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. His extensive orchestral repertoire includes the great baroque, classical and romantic oratorios, as well as seventeenth-century (Monteverdi, Purcell, Schütz) and twentieth-century works (Britten, Killmayer, Rihm, Stravinsky). Teaching is an important part of the tenor's musical life; since 2004 he has been a professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne and, in addition, regularly gives masterclasses to young singers from all over the world.
El Cor de Cambra del Palau de la Música Catalana és un cor professional creat per l’Orfeó Català l’any 1990 amb la missió de difondre la música coral universal, promoure la recuperació del patrimoni musical català i fomentar la nova creació. Ha estat dirigit per Jordi Casas i Bayer, Josep Vila i Casañas i Simon Halsey. Actualment, Xavier Puig n’és el director i Jordi Armengol el pianista. Ha estat dirigit per grans mestres com René Jacobs, Marc Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel, Daniel Barenboim, Christophe Rousset, Vladimir Jurowski, Daniele Gatti i Simon Carrington, i ha col·laborat amb els cantants Philippe Jaroussky i Mark Padmore. Des del 2010 és membre de The European Network for Professional Chamber Choirs (TENSO).