Monica Pustilnik is a lutenist, conductor, and teacher. She performs on all of the historical plucked string instruments, including the lute and archlute, the theorbo, the baroque guitar, and viola da mano.
In 2021, she was appointed Artistic Director of the Association of Ancient Music Concerts (ACMA) in Geneva. Since September 2017, Monica Pustilnik has been Professor of Lute at the Haute école de Musique de Genève. She also teaches lute at the Paris Conservatoire.
She is very active as a soloist, as a chamber musician, and in opera productions. She regularly performs and records with renowned orchestras such as the English Baroque Soloists under John Eliot Gardiner, Le Concert d’Astrée led by Emmanuelle Haïm, the Cappella Mediterranea conducted by Leonardo García-Alarcón, Les Musiciens du Louvre led by Marc Minkowski, Les Talens Lyriques led by Christophe Rousset, Concerto Vocale conducted by René Jacobs, or Les Arts Florissants by William Christie, among others.
As a conductor, Mónica Pustilnik shared in the musical direction of Heliogabalus by Francesco Cavalli at the Paris Opéra and also for Cavalli’s Elena at the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence Festival, Monteverdi’s Orfeo at the Opéra de Lille, Cavalli’s Hipermestra at the Utrecht Early Music Festival, and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea at the Haute école de Musique. In 2014, she conducted performances of Elena at the operas of Nantes and Angers. In 2018, she assisted Leonardo García-Alarcón in the production of Henry Purcell’s King Arthur at the Grand Théâtre de Genève, and also conducted the orchestra during the performance.
Monica Pustilnik records for labels such as Harmonia Mundi, Naïve, Virgin, Arcana, Glossa, and K617. Her first solo album was recorded on the Accent label and is dedicated to the works of Alessandro Piccini. This 2014 recording received both critical and public acclaim.
Throughout her career, Mónica Pustilnik has performed in prestigious venues such as the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, La Scala in Milan, Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Vienna State Opera. She also performs in recitals at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, at the Poznań Festival (Poland), in Ravello (Italy), at the Freunde Alter Musik Basel (Switzerland), among many others.
