Andrea Marcon is one of the most renowned musicians and specialists in the field of early music and classical music. Born in Treviso, northern Italy, he studied at the Schola Cantorum in Basel with Jean-Claude Zehnder, Hans Martin Linde and Jordi Savall, among others, as well as with Luigi Fernando Tagliavini, Hans Van Nieuwkoop, Jesper Christensen, Harald Vogel and Ton Koopman.
He won first prize at the Innsbruck Organ Competition in 1986 and first prize for harpsichord in Bologna in 1991. Today, Andrea Marcon is internationally recognised as a leading interpreter of baroque, classical and early romantic music. He also passes on his knowledge to students at conservatoires and universities around the world and is a professor of harpsichord, organ and interpretation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.
In 1997, Andrea Marcon founded the Venice Baroque Orchestra (VBO), which is now one of the world's leading baroque ensembles. Since 2009, he has been the artistic director of the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra & Vocal Ensemble Basel. In fact, his partnership with the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel began as early as 1999 with the ensemble's very first concert. Since then, he has led it from one highlight to the next with highly acclaimed productions of operas and ballets at the Theater Basel as well as on international concert tours with stars such as Magdalena Kožená and Patricia Petibon.
For many years, Andrea Marcon has been a guest in all the world's major concert halls. He performs with leading singers and well-known instrumental soloists. He regularly works as a guest conductor at the Neue Oper Frankfurt and at the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence and has been invited by the Berlin Philharmonic, the radio orchestras of the BR, WDR, HR, NDR and RSB, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Danish National Orchestra, the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the Camerata Salzburg and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Andrea Marcon has been widely acclaimed for his performances of Marcello's "Il trionfo della Musica e della Poesia"; Vivaldi's "Orlando furioso", "Atenaide", "Tito Manlio", Gloria, Magnificat, "Juditha triumphans" ; Cavalli's "Calisto e Giasone"; Monteverdi's "L'Orfeo" and vespers; Handel's "Messiah", "Ariodante" and "Alcina"; and Bach's cantatas and B minor Mass. His repertoire also includes symphonies by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert, early Rossini operas and symphonies by Brahms and Mahler.
Over 75 recordings, often award-winning, as a conductor, harpsichordist and organist document the rich repertoire with which he is still involved today. He has been awarded the German Record Critics' Prize four times for his recordings as an organist and harpsichordist. His recordings as a conductor have also received numerous awards, including the Diapason d'Or, Choc du Monde de la Musique, the Vivaldi Prize from the Cini Foundation, the ECHO Klassik, the Edison Prize, the International Classical Music Award and two Grammy nominations.
In 2021, Andrea Marcon was honoured with the Handel Prize, which is awarded by the city of Halle as part of the Handel Festival.