Leonardo García-Alarcón is regarded as one of the most sought-after musicians of his generation. In 2025, he was named “Artist of the Year” and received the International Classical Music Award.
After studying the piano in Argentina, he moved to Europe in 1997 and joined the harpsichord class of Christiane Jaccottet at the Geneva Conservatory. In 2005, he founded his own ensemble, Cappella Mediterranea, before taking over the direction of the Choeur de Chambre de Namur in 2010. Thanks to his concert creations in Ambronay and his rediscoveries of lesser-known works by Sacrati, Cavalli, Draghi, Falvetti, and D’India, he quickly became a highly regarded conductor. As both conductor and harpsichordist, he is in demand at major music and opera institutions, having worked at the Paris Opéra, the Zarzuela in Madrid, the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and the Berlin State Opera. He is a regular guest with Les Violons du Roy in Canada, the Radio France Orchestra, and the Gulbenkian Orchestra.
Following his triumphant direction of Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes at the Opéra Bastille, he was awarded Best Conductor at the 2019 Forum Opéra awards. His recent successful productions include Lully’s Atys, staged by Angelin Preljocaj (Geneva and Versailles, 2022), Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, directed by Ted Huffman (Aix-en-Provence, 2022), and Mozart’s Idomeneo (Geneva, 2024). In September 2022, he opened a new chapter in his career with the world premiere of his oratorio Pasión Argentina, his first major contemporary composition. Since 2024, Leonardo García-Alarcón has been the artistic director of the Geneva concert hall La Cité Bleue. He was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
His work is documented in numerous CD recordings, most recently Amore Siciliano (Alpha Classics), an album featuring both folk and art music from 17th- and 18th-century Italy, as well as recordings of Philippe d’Orléans’s La Jérusalem délivrée and Lully’s Atys.
