Marcel Ortega i Martí (La Secuita, Spain, 1990) begins his musical career in Escolania de Montserrat, one of the best boys’ choirs in Europe, and earns both Choral and Orchestral Conducting Bachelors in Musikene - the Basque Country's Superior Conservatory of Music. An Erasmus scholarship allows him to attend the G. B. Martini Conservatory in Bologna, Italy, during one year, and he earns a Master's degree in Orchestral Conducting in the Haute École de Musique in Geneva, Switzerland.
He is one of the eight finalists for the Eric Ericson Award, the world's premier choral conducting competition, to be held in Stockholm in October 2024. He was awarded a scholarship to study at the Gstaad Conducting Academy with Jaap van Zweden, principal conductor of the New York Philharmonic in 2017. He was a finalist in the selection process for assistant conductor of the Spanish National Choir in 2021 and a semi-finalist in the I Jeunesses Musicales National Conducting Competition of Spain in February 2023.
He has been invited by several professional orchestras in Spain, such as Orquesta Sinfónica de la Región de Murcia, Orquestra Simfònica del Vallès or Camerata Eduard Toldrà. Since 2019, he helds the position of musical director of Castelló Wind Symphony, one of the best professional wind orchestras in Spain, and he has been invited as a guest conductor in professional wind symphonies such as Barcelona, Bilbao, Valencia, Vitoria, A Coruña and Pamplona.
He has been invited to the Resis and Ensems contemporary music festivals; he has been the founder and leader for 5 years of the Lut Vocal Ensemble, which specialises in European Renaissance music, and he regularly conducts world premieres by living Catalan and Spanish composers. In the recent years, he has guest conducted the Valencia Opera Choir, the University Choirs of Tarragona, Valencia and Castelló and the vocal ensembles ARSinNOVA and Pax Chamber Choir, from Barcelona. His versatile profile allows him to conduct choral symphonic works such as Bruckner's Mass n. 2, Mozart, Fauré, Cherubini or Brahms’ Requiem, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet, Orff’s Carmina Burana or Jenkins’ L’homme armé. He also enjoys conducting groups of contemporary or early music. He has been an assistant in opera productions such us Wozzeck, La Traviata or La Bohème and he has experience in Spanish zarzuela.
He is currently the choir master of the Barcelona Conservatoire, where he conducts the four main choirs of this prestigious music academy and teaches choral conducting. He is also a conducting teacher at the Castelló Superior Academy of Music.
He has won several choral conducting awards and his works have been published by the Catalan Choral Association. His works include a cantata for wind band and children's choir for the 'Escola Canta' project and a religious chamber opera for the 'Misteri de Castelló' project.
Marcel Ortega i Martí (La Secuita, 1990) is one of the eight finalists for the Eric Ericson Award, the world's premier choral conducting competition, to be held in Stockholm in October 2024. A semi-finalist for the first Spanish Conducting Award and a finalist for Spanish National Choir assistant conductor position, he has guest conducted several professional orchestras, choirs and wind orchestras, such as the Murcia Symphony, the Opera Choir of Valencia or the Barcelona Wind Symphony. He is frequently invited to festivals of both contemporary and early music, and stands out in conducting symphonic and choral repertoire.
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