JORDI SAVALL
For more than 50 years, Jordi Savall, one of the most versatile musical personalities of his generation, has rescued musical gems from the obscurity of neglect and oblivion and given them back for all to enjoy. A tireless researcher into early music, he interprets and performs the repertory both as a gambist and a conductor. His activities as a concert performer, teacher, researcher, and creator of new musical and cultural projects have made him a leading figure in the reappraisal of historical music. Together with Montserrat Figueras, he founded the ensembles Hespèrion XXI (1974), La Capella Reial de Catalunya (1987), and Le Concert des Nations (1989), with whom he explores and creates a world of emotion and beauty shared with millions of early-music enthusiasts around the world.
Savall has recorded and released more than 230 discs covering the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical music repertories, with a special focus on the Hispanic and Mediterranean musical heritage, receiving such prized awards and distinctions as the Midem Classical Award, the International Classical Music Award, and the Grammy Award. His concert programs have made music an instrument of mediation to achieve understanding and peace between different and sometimes warring peoples and cultures. Accordingly, guest artists appearing with his ensembles include Arab, Israeli, Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Afghan, Mexican, and North American musicians. In 2008, Savall was appointed European Union Ambassador for intercultural dialogue and was named an Artist for Peace under the UNESCO Good Will Ambassadors program.
Savall’s prolific musical career has brought him the highest national and international distinctions, including honorary doctorates from the universities of Evora (Portugal), Barcelona (Catalonia), Louvain (Belgium) and Basel (Switzerland), the order of Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur (France), the Praetorius Music Prize awarded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of Lower Saxony, the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia, the Helena Vaz da Silva Award, and the prestigious Léonie Sonning Prize (considered the Nobel Prize of the music world).
“Jordi Savall testifies to a common cultural inheritance of infinite variety. He is a man for our time” (The Guardian, 2011).