Spanish evening – Lucero Tena-castanets, Spain; Xavier de Maistre-harp, France

Xavier de Maistre-harp

Xavier de Maistre is one of today’s leading harpists and a profoundly creative musician. As a fierce champion of his instrument, he has broadened the harp repertoire, commissioning new work from composers. He also creates transcriptions of important instrumental repertoire.

He is regularly invited by first-class orchestras across the globe: Chicago, Montréal, City of Birmingham, Swedish and Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestras; Los Angeles, London, St Petersburg, Oslo and China Philharmonic Orchestras; Orchestre de Paris, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg, Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo; working with conductors including Sir André Previn, Sir Simon Rattle, Riccardo Muti, Daniele Gatti, Philippe Jordan, Bertrand de Billy, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Daniel Harding, Susanna Mälkki.

As a recital soloist, he has been a guest at the most renewed International Festivals. He is passionate about chamber music and regularly puts together original recital projects, including numerous collaborations with highly versatile artists like tenor Rolando Villazón, castanet legend Lucero Tena, Diana Damrau, Arabella Steinbacher, Daniel Müller-Schott, Baiba Skride, Mojca Erdmann…

Xavier has been an exclusive Sony Music artist since 2008, when he recorded his first album, Nuit d’Etoiles, dedicated to Debussy. Further releases include Hommage à Haydn (2009), Aranjuez (2010), Notte Veneziana (2012), Moldau (2015), and La Harpe Reine (2016) with Les Arts Florissants and William Christie.  On 2017 he recorded a new CD for the label Sony with Lucero Tena,”Serenata Española“, and started tours with this project all over the world, or the highly acclaimed Serenata Latina album with Rolando Villazo in 2020. His latest CD dedicated to Russian music was released, featuring Reinhold Glière’s famous harp concerto and Alexander Mosolov’s forgotten concerto, accompanied by WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln under the baton of Nathalie Stutzmann.

He has taught at Musikhochschule in Hamburg since 2001.

He plays on a Lyon & Healy harp.

Lucero Tena– castanets

Called by an Italian review the “Paganini of the castanets”, Lucero Tena has marked a personal, unmistakable style to her performance of the castanets, creating the concept of Castanets Soloist.

She has performed as soloist in concert halls around the five continents, under the baton of conductors such as Lorin Maazel, Mstislav Rostropovich, Rafael Frübeck de Burgos, Jesús López Cobos, others. She also has performed as soloist with the most prestigious International Orchestras. Her last engagements include the Hannover opera house, La Folle Journée Festival in Nantes, Tokio and Warsaw, and concerts under the baton of Plácido Domingo at the Philarmonie of Berlin and at Teatro alla Scala in 2017, as well as guest soloist with the most important Spanish Orchestras.

On 2017 she recorded a new CD for the label Sony with Xavier de Maistre, Serenata Española, and started tours with this project all over the world. In 2018 she performed at the Hollywood Bowl with Plácido Domingo, MITO and Ravenna Festivals with Xavier de Maistre and debuted at the Philarmonie of Paris.

Her latest engagements include recitals with Xavier de Maistre in Germany, France, China, and Japan and in festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein and Spanish summer Festivals, besides her soloist appearance in the Spanish Theaters and Opera Houses.