Leonardo García-Alarcón is chief conductor of Cappella Mediterranea, which he founded in 2005, and artistic director of the Namur Chamber Choir.
After studying piano in his native country, Argentina, in 1997 Garcia-Alarcón moved to Geneva in order to continue his studies as a harpsichordist and specialise in early music. He performed with Ensemble Elyma, where he became assistant conductor to Gabriel Garrido.
As a conductor and harpsichordist, Garcia-Alarcón performs at festivals and in concert halls all over the world, preferrably with lesser known repertoire. With Cappella Mediterranea he gave much acclaimed performances of largely forgotten early Italian operas, including Francesco Cavalli’s Elena, Erismena, Eliogabalo and Il giasone. Hen composed a highly acclaimed new third act to Antonio Draghi’s opera El Prometeo, the original score having been lost to history.
Garcia-Alarcón teaches the harpsichord and vocal interpretation of Baroque music at the Geneva University of Music.
In October 2022, Garcia-Alarcón made an impressive debut with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducting Mozart’s version of Handels’s opera Acis and Galatea, in a mise-en-espace by Pierre Audi. Two years later he returned with a unique pastiche consisting of episodes from worldly cantatas by Bach and Handel’s Music for the Royal Fireworks.