Xavier Díaz Latorre was born in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

 in 1968. He studied at advanced level with Oscar Ghiglia

Oscar Ghiglia

Oscar Ghiglia is an Italian classical guitarist.Born of an artistic family - his father and grandfather were both famed painters, his mother an accomplished pianist – Oscar Ghiglia had to choose between a path strewn with brushes and colours and a world cut into harmony and melody.Though his early...

 at the Musikhochschule, Basel

Basel

Basel or Basle In the national languages of Switzerland the city is also known as Bâle , Basilea and Basilea is Switzerland's third most populous city with about 166,000 inhabitants. Located where the Swiss, French and German borders meet, Basel also has suburbs in France and Germany...

, graduating in 1993. His subsequent interest in early music

Early music

Early music is generally understood as comprising all music from the earliest times up to the Renaissance. However, today this term has come to include "any music for which a historically appropriate style of performance must be reconstructed on the basis of surviving scores, treatises,...

 led him to study the lute

Lute

Lute can refer generally to any plucked string instrument with a neck and a deep round back, or more specifically to an instrument from the family of European lutes....

 with Hopkinson Smith

Hopkinson Smith

Hopkinson Smith is an American lutenist.Born in New York, he graduated from Harvard with Honors in Music...

 at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis

Schola Cantorum Basiliensis

Schola Cantorum Basiliensis is a music academy and research institution located in Basel, Switzerland, and focusing on early music and historically informed performance....

. He has completed several courses in choral conducting and a post-graduate course in orchestral conducting.

He has been awarded several international performance prizes in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.

Since 1995 he has been actively involved in the world of baroque opera, having participated in major productions such as Semele (Handel) at the Berlin State Opera

Berlin State Opera

The Staatsoper Unter den Linden is a German opera company. Its permanent home is the opera house on the Unter den Linden boulevard in the Mitte district of Berlin, which also hosts the Staatskapelle Berlin orchestra.-Early years:...

 with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin is a German chamber orchestra founded in East Berlin in 1982...

, conducted by René Jacobs; L'Orfeo (Monteverdi) at the Goldoni Theatre, Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, the Théâtre de la Monnaie, Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, Covent Garden

Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a district in London on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St. Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit and vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist site, and the Royal Opera House, which is also known as...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence

Aix-en-Provence

Aix , or Aix-en-Provence to distinguish it from other cities built over hot springs, is a city-commune in southern France, some north of Marseille. It is in the region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, in the département of Bouches-du-Rhône, of which it is a subprefecture. The population of Aix is...

, the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées

Théâtre des Champs-Élysées

The Théâtre des Champs-Élysées is a theatre at 15 avenue Montaigne. Despite its name, the theatre is not on the Champs-Élysées but nearby in another part of the 8th arrondissement of Paris....

, Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, and the BAM

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn Academy of Music is a major performing arts venue in Brooklyn, a borough of New York City, United States, known as a center for progressive and avant garde performance....

, New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

, again under René Jacobs but with Concerto Vocale; L’Orfeo again, but with Le Concert des Nations

Le Concert des Nations

Le Concert des Nations is an orchestra with period instruments, able to perform the orchestral and symphonic repertoire from the Baroque to Romanticism: 1600 - 1850. The orchestra was created in 1989, the youngest of the groups conducted by the Catalan maestro and viola da gamba virtuoso Jordi Savall...

 and Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall

Jordi Savall i Bernadet is a Catalan viol player, conductor and composer. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for bringing the viol back to life on the stage...

 at the Teatro Real

Teatro Real

The Teatro Real or simply El Real , is a major opera house located in Madrid, Spain.-History:...

, Madrid

Madrid

Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...

 and the Liceu

Liceu

The Gran Teatre del Liceu , or simply Liceu in Catalan and Liceo in Spanish, is an opera house on La Rambla in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain...

, Barcelona; Solimano (Johann Adolph Hasse

Johann Adolph Hasse

Johann Adolph Hasse was an 18th-century German composer, singer and teacher of music. Immensely popular in his time, Hasse was best known for his prolific operatic output, though he also composed a considerable quantity of sacred music...

) at the Berlin and Dresden

Dresden

Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....

 State Operas with Concerto Köln

Concerto Köln

Concerto Köln is a Baroque music chamber ensemble.The group formed in 1985, one of many groups associated with the surging interest in period instruments in that decade. Its members consisted mainly of recent graduates of conservatories from across Europe. They began touring the Continent, often...

 and René Jacobs; La Serva Padrona

La serva padrona

La serva padrona is an opera buffa by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi to a libretto by Gennaro Antonio Federico, after the play by Jacopo Angello Nelli. The opera is only 45 minutes long and was originally performed as an intermezzo between the acts of a larger serious opera...

 (Pergolesi) at the Philharmonie

Philharmonie

* Berliner Philharmonie* Cologne Philharmonie* Elbe Philharmonie, Hamburg* Jenaer Philharmonie* Gasteig Philharmonie, Munich* Neue Philharmonie Frankfurt* Philharmonie de Paris* Philharmonie Luxembourg...

, Berlin

Berlin

Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...

 and Ludwigsburg Palace

Ludwigsburg Palace

Ludwigsburg Palace is a historical building in the city of Ludwigsburg , Germany. It is one of the country's largest Baroque palaces and features an enormous garden in that style....

 with the Balthasar-Neumann Ensemble and Thomas Hengelbrock

Thomas Hengelbrock

Thomas Hengelbrock is a German violinist, musicologist, stage director and conductor.- Biography :Thomas Hengelbrock studied the violin with Rainer Kussmaul and started his career in Würzburg and Freiburg im Breisgau...

; Dal Male il Bene (Marco Marazzoli

Marco Marazzoli

Marco Marazzoli was an Italian priest and composer.-Early life:Born at Parma, Marazzoli received early training as a priest, and was ordained around 1625. He moved to Rome in 1626, and entered the service of Cardinal Antonio Barberini...

 and Antonio Maria Abbatini

Antonio Maria Abbatini

Antonio Maria Abbatini was an Italian composer, active mainly in Rome.Abbatini was born in Città di Castello. He served as maestro di cappella at the Basilica of St. John Lateran from 1626 to 1628; at the cathedral in Orvieto in 1633; and at Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome between 1640 to 1646, 1649...

) at the Landestheater, Innsbruck

Innsbruck

- Main sights :- Buildings :*Golden Roof*Kaiserliche Hofburg *Hofkirche with the cenotaph of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor*Altes Landhaus...

 with Concerto Vocale and Attilio Cremonesi; Don Chisciote della Mancia in Sierra Morena

Sierra Morena

The Sierra Morena is one of the main systems of mountain ranges in Spain.It stretches for 400 kilometres East-West across southern Spain, forming the southern border of the Meseta Central plateau of the Iberian Peninsula, and providing the watershed between the valleys of the Guadiana to the...

 (Francesco Bartolomeo Conti) with the University of Salamanca Baroque Orchestra and Wieland Kuijken.

Festivals

Xavier Díaz-Latorre frequently takes part in major international festivals in Europe, the USA, South America

South America

South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...

, and South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

. He is a member of renowned orchestra

Orchestra

An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

s and chamber groups

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

 such as those conducted by Jordi Savall – Hesperion XXI

Hespèrion XXI

Hespèrion XXI is an international early music ensemble. The group was formed in Basel, Switzerland in 1974 as Hespèrion XX by Spanish musical director Jordi Savall , Montserrat Figueras , Lorenzo Alpert , and Hopkinson Smith...

, La Capella Reial de Catalunya

La Capella Reial de Catalunya

La Capella Reial de Catalunya was created in Barcelona in 1987 by its conductor Jordi Savall as a group of soloist singers whose aim is to make the repertoire of Catalan historical music and, by extension, that of Spanish and other music widely known throughout the world...

 and Le Concert de Nations, and has been invited to perform with other major orchestras and ensembles such as the Orquesta Nacional de España

Orquesta Nacional de España

The Orquesta Nacional de España is a symphonic orchestra based in Madrid, Spain.-History:Although working since in 1937 during the Spanish civil war, the orchestra was legally founded in 1940, by the merging of the Perez Casas' Filarmónica and the Orquesta Sinfónica of Arbós...

 or Al Ayre Español

Al Ayre Español

Al Ayre Español is a vocal and instrumental ensemble specialized on early music founded in 1988 by Eduardo López Banzo .The name of the ensemble was inspired by the title for a guitar Fugue of the Calanda composer, Gaspar Sanz...

.

Laberintos Ingeniosos

He has his own vocal and instrumental ensemble, Laberintos Ingeniosos, which specialises in performance of music from the Spanish Golden Age

Spanish Golden Age

The Spanish Golden Age is a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise and decline of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty. El Siglo de Oro does not imply precise dates and is usually considered to have lasted longer than an actual century...

. The group’s first disc, Danzas de Rasgueado y Sones de Palacio, with music by the Aragonese composer Gaspar Sanz

Gaspar Sanz

Gaspar Sanz was an Aragonese composer, guitarist, organist and priest born to a wealthy family in Calanda in the Spanish comarca of Bajo Aragón. He studied music, theology and philosophy at the University of Salamanca, where he was later appointed Professor of Music...

, recorded on the Zig-Zag Territoires label, has received excellent reviews in the media, and has been broadcast by several international radio stations throughout Europe, Israel, Australia, South Korea and North America. Laberintos Ingeniosos has now made further CDs of music from the Iberian Peninsula

Iberian Peninsula

The Iberian Peninsula , sometimes called Iberia, is located in the extreme southwest of Europe and includes the modern-day sovereign states of Spain, Portugal and Andorra, as well as the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar...

 performed on period instruments, such as Goyesca, seguidillas boleras, with music by Fernando Sor

Fernando Sor

Josep Ferran Sorts i Muntades was a Spanish classical guitarist and composer. While he is best known for his guitar compositions, he also composed music for a wide range of genres, including opera, orchestra, string quartet, piano, voice and ballet...

, and “...entre el cielo y el infierno...”, with works by Francisco de Guerau and José Marín

José Marín

José Marín is a retired Spanish race walker.-Achievements:-External links:*...

. In addition, Xavier Díaz-Latorre has taken part in over 30 CDs for Alia Vox and Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, and has made recordings for numerous television and radio stations in Europe, North and South America and Korea.

Teaching

He has been invited to give courses at many venues in Spain, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, also at Seoul (South Korea). He is resident teacher of lute, basso continuo and chamber music at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya

Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya

The Catalonia College of Music is a music school in Barcelona, CataloniaThe School is located in Barcelona at L'Auditori, a performing arts center inaugurated in 1999 which also houses three concert halls and is designated as the site of a future museum of musical instruments...

(ESMUC).

External links

• Xavier Diaz-Latorre's home page