La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel
1999 on the initiative of the then director of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, Dr. Peter Reidemeister, the name of the La Cetra Barockorchester Basel is borrowed from Antonio Vivaldi's violin concerto op. 9 “La Cetra” – the lyre (zither). It represents the core repertoire of the orchestra, Italian instrumental music of the 18th century. Another focus of La Cetra is where the term “orchestra” can be spoken of for the first time: at the beginning of the 17th century and the works of Claudio Monteverdi and his contemporaries. Since it was founded, La Cetra has rapidly risen to the ranks of the leading international early music orchestras.

Tours and guest performances regularly take the orchestra to the most renowned concert halls and the best-known baroque festivals throughout Europe, such as the Philharmonie de Paris, BOZAR Brussels, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam with the NTR ZaterdagMatinee, the Konzerthaus Wien and the Theater an der Wien, the Elbphilharmonie, the Dresden Music Festival, the Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music and the Klosters Music Festival.

La Cetra owes its dynamic development above all to Andrea Marcon, under whose direction the orchestra has been since 2009. As a multiple award-winning harpsichordist and organist, Marcon is a sought-after expert on Italian early music and works as a guest conductor with well-known orchestras such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic and many other European orchestras. It is also thanks to his initiative that the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel has been supported by the La Cetra Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Carlos Federico Sepúlveda since 2012.

La Cetra's express credo is that scientific background work, intensive examination of historical instruments, performance practice and the historical environment of the works played ultimately only serve one purpose: to make so-called early music tangible for people of today - in lively, gripping , current interpretations. For this, La Cetra was awarded the European Prize for Early Music in 2009.

La Cetra enjoys international success with acclaimed concerts with singers such as Maria Espada, Franco Fagioli, Ann Hallenberg, Roberta Invernizzi, Magdalena Kožená, Carlos Mena, Patricia Petibon and Andreas Scholl as well as instrumentalists such as Nicola Benedetti, Giuliano Carmignola and Maurice Steger. La Cetra is proud of the close artistic collaboration with rising stars in the baroque sky such as the countertenors David Hansen and Kangmin Justin Kim. Artistic encounters with the renowned conductors Gustav Leonhardt, René Jacobs, Jordi Savall and Attilio Cremonesi also proved to be extremely fruitful.

In 2011 the orchestra celebrated its debut with Deutsche Grammophon with two Mozart recordings. 2012 followed the release of «Nouveau Monde» with Patricia Petibon there. With the world premiere recording of Antonio Caldara's La Concordia de' Pianeti with Franco Fagioli and others, La Cetra made a new musical discovery in 2014. The critically acclaimed CD release of the album «Monteverdi», which was nominated for a Grammy in 2016, took La Cetra to concerts in Germany, Luxembourg, England and Spain together with Magdalena Kožená. Most recently, the highly acclaimed recordings “Mr Handel’s Dinner” with Maurice Steger were released by harmonia mundi and the integral recording of all Leclair violin concertos on three CDs with Leila Schayegh by Glossa. In October 2022, Monteverdi's "Vespro di Natale" with the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra and the associated vocal ensemble will be released by Deutsche Grammophon.

La Cetra vocal ensemble Basel
was founded in 2012. The core of the choir consists mainly of graduates of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. On the one hand, the La Cetra Vocal Ensemble supports the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra, which opens up attractive possibilities for repertoire additions and expansions, and on the other hand, the vocal ensemble also realizes its own projects.

Due to the high musical and stylistic competence of the singers involved, the vocal ensemble is extremely versatile. The repertoire ranges from the Gregorian chant Schola and Renaissance works to solo chamber formations to large concertante and scenic opera performances and oratorios.

The La Cetra vocal ensemble has performed in Italy, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria, collaborating with various orchestras. Since 2020/21, the La Cetra vocal ensemble can also be heard regularly "a cappella" in the series "La Cetra in Basel".

Andrea Marcon
is one of the most renowned musicians and specialists in the field of early music and classical music. Born in Treviso in 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 and Ton Koopman.

In 1986 he won first prize at the organ competition in Innsbruck and in 1991 first prize for harpsichord in Bologna. Today, Andrea Marcon is internationally recognized as a leading interpreter of classical and early romantic music. Since 2009 he has been artistic director of the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra & Vocal Ensemble Basel, which today is one of the leading baroque ensembles in the world. In fact, his partnership with the La Cetra Barockorchester Basel began back in 1999 with the ensemble's very first concert. Since then he has led it from one peak to the next with highly acclaimed performances from the Renaissance to the Classical period, with performances of operas and ballets at the Theater Basel or the Dutch National Opera as well as on international concert tours with stars such as Magdalena Kožená or Patricia Petibon.

As the founder of the legendary baroque ensemble "I Sonatori della Gioiosa Marca" and the Venice Baroque Orchestra, Andrea Marcon has been a guest in all major concert halls worldwide for many years. From 2012 to 2012 he was chief conductor of the Orquesta de Granada.

He plays with leading singers and well-known instrumental soloists. As a guest conductor, Andrea Marcon works with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, the Munich Philharmonic, at the Frankfurt Opera, Valencia, Lausanne, the Bolshoi Theater and many more.

More than 75 recordings, many of which have won awards, document the rich repertoire with which he is still engaged today. For his recordings as an organist and harpsichordist, he was awarded the German Record Critics' Prize four times. His recordings as a conductor have also received multiple awards, including the ECHO Klassik and two Grammy nominations.

In 2021, Andrea Marcon was delighted to receive the Handel Prize from the city of Halle. In addition, he passes on his knowledge to students at conservatories and universities all over the world - not least there, where he completed a significant part of his own studies - as professor for harpsichord, organ and interpretation at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.