Albert Recasens, director

Born in Cambrils (Tarragona). He began learning music under the direction of his father, the teacher and conductor Ángel Recasens, which he continued at the Conservatorio Profesional de Vilaseca y Salou. In April 1986 he was awarded a prize at the "Premi Ciutat de Berga" International Piano Competition and in December that year he received the CIRIT Prize for encouraging the academic spirit of the youth of the Generalitat de Catalunya. He perfected his knowledge of music at the Escola de Música de Barcelona, the Stedelijk Conservatorium van Brugge and the Koninklijk Conservatorium Gent (piano, conducting, choir singing, history of music and music composition). During his musical training, he attended several courses and seminars on music teaching, choir singing and conducting. At the same time, he studied for a degree in musicology at the Université Catholique de Louvain in the Dutch and French sections, where he received a doctorate degree in 2001 with his thesis on the zarzuelas of Rodríguez de Hita (1722-1787) which was awarded Summa Cum Laude.

He has held scholarships from the Generalitat de Catalunya and Dirección General de Recerca (AIRE) to further his studies abroad (1994-1996). The Comunidad de Madrid also funded his dissertation as part of the research project "La tonadilla escénica en tiempos de José I y Fernando VII. Una mirada retrospectiva", based at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He has published in various journals and encyclopaedias, both nationally and abroad, and has completed the critical editions of Rodríguez de Hita's zarzuela Briseida for the Instituto Complutense de Ciencias Musicales, and Canciones Musicales for the Fundación Caja Madrid (forthcoming, in 2008), and Alonso Lobo's Liber primus for the Government of Andalucía.

In 1994, Recasens and his father founded the Capilla Príncipe de Viana, which became La Grande Chapelle in 2005, through which he has carried out important research projects to recuperate the musical heritage of Spain. Some of his most significant projects were those commissioned by the Sociedad Estatal para la Conmemoración de los Centenarios de Felipe II y Carlos V, the Ministry of Culture of the Autonomous Region of Madrid, the Fundación Caja Madrid and the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Scientíficas. In 2005, Recasens created the record label Lauda; together, Recasens, the label and the critically acclaimed ensemble La Grande Chapelle, which is supported by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Scientíficas, have embarked on an ambitious series of recordings. Following the death of Ángel Recasens in August of 2007, he has taken on the artistic direction of La Grande Chapelle, and is working with the ensemble on several projects in the fields of seventeenth and eighteenth century music for the theatre and polychoral music. This year, for example, he has been invited to direct the inaugural concert at the 47^th Semana de Música Religiosa Cuenca, the premiere of Francisco García Fajer's officium defunctorum and a programme of Spanish court music at the Noirlac and Haut-Jura festivals.

Recasens regularly teaches music management and music history classes and in masters programmes, primarily at the Universidad Autónoma, Madrid and the Universidad Carlos III, Madrid (Masters in Arts Management) and the Universidad de Valencia (Masters in Music Aesthetics and Creativity). He has been invited to give master classes - usually together with his father - in various institutions in Mexico, Belgium and Spain. He has also been a jury member in several international music competitions, such as the International Young Artists Presentation (IYAP) in Antwerp.