Harpsichord

Research, creativity and the wish to communicate have led Catalina Vicens to become one of the most sought-after historical keyboard performers and teachers today.

Since 2021 Vicens is director and curator of the Tagliavini Collection - Museo San Colombano, Bologna after devoting a solo and research career to the study of antique keyboard instruments. She is also recognized for her work with medieval and renaissance keyboards, working alongside instrument builders in the development of new prototypes based on historical sources. Her work alongside composers has given a new life to historical instruments.

Catalina is Guest Professor for harpsichord and research at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She has been invited as Visiting Professor of Harpsichord at Oberlin Conservatory and to teach master-classes at the Curtis Institute of Music Philadelphia, the Juilliard School of Music New York, Longy School of Music Cambridge, UC Berkeley and the Flint Antique Harpsichords Collection, as well as in the Conservatories and Music Universities of Vienna, St Andrews, Berlin and Essen, and teaches annually courses in Canada, Sweden, Germany and Switzerland. She’s been invited as jury member at the prestigious MA Festival Harpsichord Competition - Bruges, Jurow International Harpsichord Competition, Mechelen Harpsichord Competition, the Dulwich Historical Keyboard Competition and the Wanda Landowska Competition Poznań.

Vicens has given lectures at museums in Hamburg, Munich, Vermillion, Edinburgh as well as Universities of Vienna, Indiana, Warwick, Leiden, St Andrews, Berkeley, Rochester, Santiago de Chile and the Collège de France besides presenting papers at several international conferences.

Vicens studied modern piano at the Instituto de Música de la P. Universidad Católica de Chile, harpsichord at the Curtis Institute of Music, Musikhochschule Freiburg, and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis as well as medieval keyboards in the latter, and contemporary music performance at the Musik Akademie Basel. She is Ph.D. candidate at Leiden University / Orpheus Institute Ghent. As director of Servir Antico, she seeks to combine research, historical performance and social engagement.

At the Bruges Conservatory, his teacher Chris Dubois introduced him to the passion for music and the organ in particular. Bart studied at the Lemmens Institute in Leuven with his great inspiration Prof. Luc Ponet. In his class, he learned not only to focus on playing the organ as such, but also to have an eye for a broadly oriented aesthetic. He learned to expand his musical spectrum and to marvel at the particularly profound power of Art and Aesthetics.

In Paris he received his Prix d'excellence with great distinction and congratulations from the jury playing a specialized double recital in French symphonic organ music. In May 2007 he graduated in harpsichord with Kris Verhelst, and in September 2008 he obtained his Master's degree in symphonic orchestral conducting with Edmond Saveniers' class. He followed masterclasses with Ben van Oosten, Ludger Lohmann, Louis Robillard, Leo Van Doeselaar, Menno Van Delft, Trevor Pinnock, Skip Sempé, Kazushi Ono, Bernard Haitink, Roland Börger and others. 

Bart's musical activities take place in many different areas. He is a much sought-after and highly regarded continuo player, he is often asked as a soloist or in chamber music ensembles, and in recent years he has been internationally performing more and more as a conductor. His repertoire is very diverse and ranges from early polyphony to creations of contemporary compositions. He is invited by prominent musicians and renowned ensembles and orchestras, such as De Nederlandse Bachvereniging, Ensemble Il Gardellino (Marcel Ponseele and Jan De Winne), B'Rock, Flemish Opera, Anima Eterna, Ensemble Explorations, Zefiro Torna, Collegium Vocale Gent, Vlaams Radiokoor en -0rkest, the Tulipa Consort, Il Fondamento, Les Muffatti, Currende, the Choir and Orchestra of La Monnaie, the Ensemble Philidor, the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Curitiba (Brazil) or the Cluj Symphony Orchestra (Romania). 

Since 1999, Bart has been the organist of St. Gillis Church in Bruges, where he plays the renowned Bach organ and a unique, beautifully preserved Hooghuys organ. His pedagogical activities mainly take place at the renowned Royal Brussels Conservatoire where he is principal subject harpsichord teacher of a flourishing harpsichord class. Since 2019 he has been appointed Head of the Early Music Department.

Bart is increasingly focusing on solo keyboard playing (organ and harpsichord) and conducting. On the one hand, this results in a large number of organ and harpsichord recitals throughout Europe, America and Japan. On the other hand, he is regularly asked as (guest) conductor at various (inter)national choirs and orchestras. In September 2014 he was selected from 400 candidates to conduct the final week of an international conducting competition/masterclass in Cluj (Romania) where he also snatched the first prize. In 2015 he made his international debut as a symphony conductor with concerts in North and South America. In autumn 2015 he was assistant conductor to Kenneth Montgomery at the Orchestra of the 18th Century. In September 2016, he was selected as a finalist for the International Conductors' Competition in Bucharest. In October 2019, he made his debut as a conductor at Opera Ballet Flanders where he led B'Rock in Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui's production Mea Culpa. In the 2020-2021 season, the agenda includes Handel's Messiah, Judas Maccabeus, the Christmas Oratorio, the St John's and St Matthew's Passions and the Magnificat by Bach, symphonies by Boccherini, Dido & Aeneas by Purcell/Kallima, le Nozze di Figaro and the Requiem by Mozart, the Requiem by Brahms, Paulus by Mendelssohn and the Vespers by Monteverdi.

Very recently, his musical career was crowned by VRT Klara with the Klara-award for 'Musician of the Year 2020'. The jury praised his activities: "Bart Naessens is the musical jack-of-all-trades par excellence. His action radius in the world of classical music is overwhelming: as a conductor and artistic director, as a player of harpsichord and organ, as a pedagogue at the Brussels Conservatoire and as an inspirer of amateur musicians."

Apart from the many invitations, he wants to give his own insights and passions a personal interpretation. That is why, in 2007, he and his wife Amaryllis Dieltiens founded the ensemble Capriola di Gioia, where they focus on the performance practice of the baroque repertoire in an original and sophisticated way. In 2010 a long-held dream came true with the founding of the ensemble BachPlus. With this ensemble he wants to create a platform for the performance of the (cantata) repertoire of J.S. Bach and his contemporaries. This project is currently enjoying considerable success at home and abroad, and the ensemble is enchanting many melody lovers with its professional, original and exceptionally enthusiastic performances.

More information on www.bartnaessens.com