Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall is one of the most versatile musical personalities of his generation. For more than fifty years, he 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. Then, in 2017, he founded the Jove Capella de Catalunya, and in 2020, La Capella Nacional de Catalunya, with the aim of creating a new generation of international singers for La Capella Reial de Catalunya and making both historical and contemporary music accessible to all audiences. In 2018, he created Orpheus 21, a musical ensemble made up of professional musicians, migrants, and refugees from the Mediterranean region. Five years later, in 2023, he founded Les Musiciennes du Concert des Nations, an all-female orchestra specializing in Baroque repertoire, inspired by the women’s orchestras of the 18th century, particularly in Italy.

With his key participation in Alain Corneau’s film Tous les Matins du Monde (awarded the César Cinema Prize for the best soundtrack), his intense concert activity (about 140 concerts per year), his record releases (6 recordings per year) and the creation in 1998, together with Montserrat Figueras, of his own record label, Alia Vox, Jordi Savall has shown that early music does not have to be elitist, but rather that it appeals to an increasingly wide and diverse audience of all age groups.

Jordi Savall has recorded and released more than 270 discs covering the Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque and Classical music repertories, with a special focus on the Hispanic and Mediterranean musical heritage, receiving many awards and distinctions such as the Midem Classical Award, the International Classical Music Award and the Grammy Award. His concert programmes 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 Jordi Savall was appointed European Union Ambassador for intercultural dialogue and, together with Montserrat Figueras, was named “Artist for Peace” under the UNESCO “Good Will Ambassadors” programme.

Between 2020 and 2021, to mark Ludwig van Beethoven’s 250th anniversary, he conducted the complete symphonies with Le Concert des Nations and recorded them in 2 CDs entitled Beethoven Révolution. The impact they have had in the record market worldwide has been defined as “a miracle” (Fanfare), and volume II has been distinguished with the Schallplattenkritik Prize for the best orchestral record; It has also been described by Gramophone as one of the “50 of the finest recordings of Ludwig van Beethoven’s music”. At present, he continues to offer a renewed vision of the great symphonic and choral repertoire, with works by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Schubert and Bruckner.

Jordi Savall’s prolific musical career has brought him the highest national and international distinctions, including Doctor Honoris Causa awarded by universities across Europe (Évora, Barcelona, Katowice, Louvain, Basel, Utrecht and Mallorca), the French Légion d’Honneur, the International Music for Peace Prize of the Ministry of Culture and Science of Lower Saxony, the Creu de Sant Jordi and the Gold Medal of the Generalitat of Catalonia, the City of Barcelona Award, the Helena Vaz da Silva Prize, and the prestigious Léonie Sonning Music Prize of Denmark.

A member of honour of the world’s foremost musical academies – the Royal Philharmonic Society, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia – Jordi Savall has recently seen his artistic stature acknowledged through a historic invitation from the Berlin Philharmonic. This distinction is crowned by the 2026 Ernst von Siemens Music Prize, widely regarded as the ‘Nobel Prize of music’, in recognition of a lifetime of exceptional contributions to art and humanity