La Cetra owes its dynamic development above all to Andrea Marcon, under whose musical 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 renowned orchestras such as the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmoniker and many other European orchestras. It is also thanks to his initiative that the La Cetra Baroque Orchestra Basel has been joined by the La Cetra Vocal Ensemble under the direction of Carlos Federico Sepúlveda since 2012.

La Cetra's explicit credo is that scientific background work, intensive examination of historical instruments, performance practice and the historical context of the works performed ultimately serve only one purpose: to make so-called early music tangible for people of today - in lively, gripping, up-to-date interpretations. For this, La Cetra was already awarded the European Early Music Prize 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 its close artistic collaboration with rising stars in the Baroque sky such as the countertenors David Hansen and Kangmin Justin Kim. Artistic encounters with renowned conductors Gustav Leonhardt, René Jacobs, Jordi Savall and Attilio Cremonesi have also proved extremely fruitful.

In 2011, the orchestra celebrated its debut on Deutsche Grammophon with two Mozart recordings. This was followed in 2012 by the release of "Nouveau Monde" with Patricia Petibon just there. With the world premiere recording of Antonio Caldara's La Concordia de' Pianeti with Franco Fagioli, among others, La Cetra made a new musical discovery in 2014. The critically acclaimed and 2016 Grammy-nominated CD release of the album "Monteverdi" 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 as well as 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.

Season 2022/2023

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