Ángel Recasens, founding director

Teacher, organist, composer and conductor, born in Cambrils in 1938. After taking his first music lessons from his uncle, the operatic tenor Salvador Recasens, he joined the Escolania Choir of Montserrat, receiving his musical training from the maestros Anselm Ferré and David Pujol. He continued studying piano and organ at the Royal Conservatoire of the Barcelona Liceu, where he graduated with the highest honours. He went on to perfect his talents with the pianists Fructuós Piqué and Alexandre Ribó i Vall, the composer Frederic Musset, and the great cellist and conductor, Antonio Janigro. He soon began to focus his musical career on conducting and in 1973 he founded the Quartet de Madrigalistes, a group of soloists specialising in Spanish Renaissance music, with whom he had great success throughout Spain, France, and Germany. Between 1975 and 1986, he achieved spectacular results with the Sant Esteve Choir of Vila-seca and Salou (Tarragona), giving almost four hundred concerts in twenty different countries in Europe and America. He won five first prizes and two second prizes in international competitions. The public and critics considered him an authority in the field of choral and vocal music in Spain.

He was known throughout Europe for the applied music teaching methods he practised at the Professional Music Conservatoire of Vila-seca and Salou until 1986. In addition to the Vila-seca and Salou conservatoire, Recasens also founded five other municipal music schools, an international music course and two international festivals. A tireless researcher and analyst, he gave more than 150 seminars, conferences and courses on choir conducting in Germany, France, Mexico, Cuba and Spain. In recognition of his extraordinary work, he was nominated to the Sant Jordi Catalan Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Barcelona).

He was invited to conduct orchestras and ensembles both in Spain and abroad. After a period away from the world of performances, -a consequence of his unshakeable independence- in 1994, together with the musicologist Albert Recasens, he founded the Capilla Príncipe de Viana, specialised in the historical praxis, which became La Grande Chapelle in 2005. In his last years he was immersed in doing justice to the Spanish Renaissance and Baroque vocal repertory, as well as disseminating little known works and composers. The results of this period were the first six Lauda records, recorded in just two years, considered essential references in the field of Spanish Baroque music. His performances have been defined as balanced, elegant and full of nuances, far from the affected and contrived. Michel Bernstein, the famous producer of French discs and founder of the Astrée and Arcana labels, said of him: "Recasens possesses the art of unifying voices in the most balanced way and knows how to get the best of his singers. He is a great artist who honours Spain and contributes new elements to the knowledge of its rich heritage".

Angel Recasens died on August 2, 2007 at the age of 69, a victim of cancer.