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The Early Music Course has successfully held three editions, distinguished by its focus on the performance and promotion of music from past eras. Each year, artists and experts come together to offer classes and concerts, creating an enriching environment for lovers of this genre. Previous editions have featured a variety of renowned ensembles and soloists, providing unique and memorable experiences for attendees. This event continues to grow, establishing itself as a benchmark in the field of historically informed performance.

Teachers

Baroque violin and viola, viola d'amore

Claudio Andriani

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He studied violin at the ‘Academia Romanini’ in Brescia (Italy) with Dora Schwartzberg and viola at the ‘Academia W. Stauffer’ in Cremona (Italy) with Bruno Giuranna. He obtained a Konzert-Diplom in Basel (Switzerland) with Christoff Schiller, as well as in Leipzig with Ronald Baldini. Since 1988, he has performed worldwide as a soloist on the violin, viola and viola d’amore, and as a member of chamber music ensembles as principal viola and first violin. Since 1998 he has performed with the Quartetto Andriani and the Quartetto Xenakis and has won prizes in various competitions such as the “Viotti Competition” in Vercelli, the Janacek Prize in Reichenau, the Caltanissetta Competition, and reached the final round of the ARD Competition in Munich, Bavaria. He has performed with the Accademia degli Astrusi, the Accademia dei Solinghi, the Festa Rustica Ensemble, and, since 2010, with Il Giardino Armonico and the Accademia Bizantina (as first violin in the string quartet at the “Accademia Bizantina Festival” in Ravenna), and as principal viola and violin soloist with “La Verdi Barocca” in Milan. He has worked as a violin teacher at various conservatoires in Italy since 2010 and is currently a teacher of violin and Baroque violin at the “A. Vivaldi” Conservatoire in Alessandria (Italy).

Baroque cello / viola d'arco

Miguel Ángel Viñuela Solla

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A native of León, he comes across as a curious and open-minded musician who explores the poetic and rhetorical possibilities of music. He studied at the León Conservatory, ESMuC (Barcelona), Musikene (Basque Country) and Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland). His studies in cello, organ and chamber music have made him an experienced and versatile musician. Some of his teachers have included: Eva María Rodríguez, Adolfo Gutiérrez Viejo, Loreto Fernández, Markus Hünninger, Jörg-Andreas Bötticher, Bruno Cocset, Peter Skala, Anner Bylsma and Christophe Coin, amongst others. His concert career spans concert series and festivals across Spain and Europe, in which he has performed as a soloist and in chamber groups. He works and collaborates regularly with various professional orchestras and numerous ensembles specialising in early music. Of particular note are various recordings and discography projects for Swiss, German and Spanish television and radio. As founder and director of the International Course on the Iberian Organ in Santa del Rey and the School-Workshop of Early Music in León, he is frequently invited to give masterclasses in early music, aimed particularly at the younger generation. He currently resides in Switzerland, where he gives regular recitals alongside an intense programme of teaching and musical research.

Boroque Double Bass, Violone

Javier Fierro Astiárraga

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He began his double bass studies in León. He studied at the ESMuC with Toni García Araque and Andrew Ackerman, before moving on to the Reina Sofía School of Music, where, under the tutelage of Duncan McTier and Toni García, he was awarded the prize for the most outstanding student in the department for the 2010/2011 academic year. He also completed a master’s degree in Munich with Professor Nabil Shehata and a master’s degree in Early Music at the ESMuC, as well as receiving tuition from Janne Saksala, Franco Petracchi, Matthew McDonald and Heinrich Braun. He has served as co-principal double bassist with the Oviedo Philharmonic and the Castile and León Symphony Orchestra, as well as regularly collaborating with ensembles such as the Spanish National Orchestra, the Gran Teatro del Liceo Orchestra, the RTVE Orchestra, the Euskadi Orchestra, etc. He has also been a member of the Spanish National Youth Orchestra. In chamber music, he has been a member of various ensembles such as the Bottesini Quartet, the Berlin Miniensemble, the Tangus Quintet and Música Victrix. He has made various recordings for Televisión Española and Radio Nacional de España. He has taught double bass and chamber music at the professional conservatoires of León and Astorga, and holds a Master’s degree in music research from the VIU. He is currently a double bassist with the Principality of Asturias Symphony Orchestra.

Harpsichord

Diego Ares

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He studied piano with Alessandras Jurgelionis and Aldona Dvarionaite. At the age of 14, he began studying the harpsichord under the guidance of Pilar Cancio. In 2002, she moved to the Netherlands, where she studied at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague under the tutelage of Jacques Ogg. From that year onwards, she took lessons from Richard Egarr. Between 2004 and 2010, she continued her training at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland), where she studied with Jesper Christensen and Jörg-Andreas Bötticher. She honed her technique with harpsichordists Genoveva Gálvez and Carmen Schibli (a pupil of Eta Harich-Schneider). She has given recitals and taken part in festivals across Europe, Japan and Canada. As a soloist, he has performed with the Geneva Chamber Orchestra, the Brittany Symphony Orchestra, the City of Granada Orchestra, the Netherlands Bach Society Orchestra, and others. He has made recordings for Columna Música, Pan Classics, Harmonía Mundi, Ibs-Classical, and the “All of Bach” project. Her recordings have been enthusiastically received by specialist critics (three times “Exceptional” from Scherzo, three times “Diapason d’Or”, “Maestro” from Pianiste, “Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik”, “Choc” from Classica magazine, etc.). He has taught at the Trossingen Conservatory (Germany), the Gstaad Summer Academy (Switzerland) and the Geneva Conservatory.

Plucked instruments

Rodrigo Jarabo

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He undertook his advanced studies in guitar at the R.C.S.M. in Madrid and in early music instruments at the University of Salamanca, ESMUC and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, and has performed at numerous festivals in Spain, Germany, France, Austria, Slovakia, Italy, Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, Morocco, etc. In 2013, he founded the early music ensemble Yarus Grex (specialising in early Spanish music), with whom he made his debut by winning the Segovia Provincial Council’s School Music Campaign competition, delivering thirty concerts of Baroque music for schoolchildren. He is currently very active as a performer, both as a soloist and with various ensembles such as Abendmusik, Forma Antiqva, GMA UVa (University of Valladolid) and the USAL viol da gamba consort… He has released several recordings with the Ensemble Abendmusik and La Mutine, a solo CD featuring music for the theorbo, and his latest work with Yarus Grex, entitled *Dice la Nuestra Novia*, featuring Sephardic music and arrangements by Rodrigo himself. Furthermore, his work extends to traditional music alongside Vanesa Muela and to the media as the presenter of RTVECyL’s “Con la música a todas partes”. He is the creator of the SEC (Scenic Emotional Control) method for managing emotions on stage and the author of the book Remedios Contra el Miedo Escénico para músicos. He currently directs the Early Music Group at the University of Valladolid.

Organetto, medieval music

Ana Sarmiento Alonso

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Born in León, she showed a particular affinity for music from a very early age, starting with the piano before going on to study singing and the accordion at the José Castro Ovejero Conservatory in León. She subsequently continued her higher education at the ESMuC (Barcelona), the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg am Breisgau (Germany) and the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (Switzerland), where she specialised in medieval keyboards with Corina Marti and in singing with Katarina Livljanic. Her teachers have included Iñaki Alberdi, Teodoro Anzellotti, Enedina Lloris, Begoña Alberdi, Juan de la Rubia, Francisco Rubio, Javier Artigas, Baptiste Romain, Marc Lewon, and David Mesquita. Her studies as a singer, accordionist and medieval keyboardist have made her a versatile musician, participating in groups and projects across different musical styles and stage productions. She has performed as a soloist with the Orchestra and Band of JJMM-University of León, in children’s theatre productions, in the musical Chicago in collaboration with the Institut del Teatre, with the contemporary music orchestra Bcn216, and sung with the Sant Cugat Symphony Orchestra, as well as taking part in the Musikfestspiele Potsdam with her ensemble Mundus Inversus and in the Przedsionek Raju (Poland) with Green Fowr. She regularly collaborates with visual artists and poets and currently combines her musical projects with her teaching work.

Recorder

Tehilla Meller

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Born in 1986 in Israel, she began playing the recorder at an early age and later completed her studies at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (Israel). She completed a Master’s degree at the “Hochschule für Musik Karlsruhe” (Germany) under the supervision of Prof. Karel van Steenhoven, and a second Master’s degree at the “LUCA School of Arts” in Leuven (Belgium), under the supervision of Prof. Bart Spanhove. She has attended masterclasses with Pedro Memelsdorf, Maurice Staeger, Kees Boeke, Paul van Loey, Michael Schneider, Matthias Maute, Corina Marti and many others. She is an active chamber musician and soloist in various projects, including: the Händel Gesellschaft Karlsruhe, the Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, Baroque opera productions – C. Monteverdi, G. F. Handel, the Jewish-Arab Orchestra, the Dieter Schnebel Musikfest, Novus Spiritum Anticum, Neue Blockflötenmusik und historische Klänge, Trio Nigun, etc. She is a recorder teacher using the Suzuki method and in 2022 organised ‘The Magic Recorder Festival’, an international online recorder festival. She currently teaches at the G. Braga Conservatory (university level) in Teramo (Italy) and at the Suzuki Music School in Busto Arsizio (Italy).

Medieval recorders, medieval music

António Godinho

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António Godinho is a Portuguese recorder player specialising in medieval and Renaissance music. He trained in Porto with Pedro Sousa Silva, completing his studies at ESMAE in 2021, and subsequently obtained a master’s degree at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel, under the guidance of Corina Marti. He maintains an active concert career across Europe and regularly collaborates with ensembles such as Arte Minima, Gli Incogniti, FOWR, Musurgia Ensemble and Ensemble Pampinea. In parallel, he has participated in various recording projects for labels including Pan Classics, Harmonia Mundi and Coviello Classics. His work focuses particularly on the late medieval and Renaissance repertoire, and on the creative possibilities arising from direct engagement with historical sources. He is the founder and artistic director of Terebinthus, an ensemble dedicated to the music of the 14th and 15th centuries, with which he promotes programmes combining research, performance and experimentation, seeking to bring this repertoire to today’s audience in a lively and meaningful way.

Accompanist

Leonor Gonçalves

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Born in Portugal, Leonor began studying harpsichord at an early age. At the age of 14, shestudied with Cândida Matos and later began her Bachelor at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam under the guidance of Menno van Delft and Kris Verhelst. In the years 2022-2024 she studied at Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel with Bart Naessens. Currently she is enrolled in Masters degree program in harpsichord performance at Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Andrea Marcon. She won the 2nd prize of the Harpsichord edition of Marco Uccellini International Early Music Competition in 2025. She is part of the Orchestra Age of Enlightenment Experience Scheme 2026/27. She participated in the International Handel Academy under the direction of Jörg Halubek in 2026. She joined the Jeune Orchestre Baroque Européen in 2023 with Margaux Blanchard as musical director and played with the Youth Portuguese Orchestra with Pedro Sousa Silva as musical director. She took masterclasses with a vast number of harpsichordists such as, Jacques Ogg, Marco Mencoboni and Dirk Börner. She was also part of the “French Academy Masterclass” in 2024 under the direction of Skip Sempé and accompanied by Capriccio Stravagante instrumentalists.

Activities

The main aim of the Early Music Course is to introduce participants to historical performance practices, exploring repertoires ranging from the Middle Ages to the Baroque period, all set against the incomparable historical backdrop of Grajal de Campos. Throughout the programme, activities will be organised to deepen participants’ understanding of the stylistic, technical and aesthetic aspects of this music, combining theory classes, practical workshops and both individual and group sessions.

 

In addition to the musical focus, the course offers complementary activities that enrich the learning experience, contributing to the students’ all-round development. This multidisciplinary approach fosters a deeper, more critical and conscious understanding of musical practice, all within a unique setting in the province of León.

Programme

  • 4 individual lessons

  • Chamber music and group lessons

  • Music notation and sources

  • Improvisation

  • Vocal music

  • Festival concerts

  • Lessons to overcome stage fright

  • Guided tour of the heritage sites of Grajal de Campos

  • Great Bustard Trail

  • Stargazing

Terms and conditions

- Have a basic knowledge of the instrument

- Be at least 12 years old

- Each teacher will have a maximum of 5 students, based on the order of registration

- On the first day of the course, students will receive detailed information about timetables and activities

- Minors will need permission from a parent or guardian

- The festival concerts will be free for current students and auditors

Accommodation and meals

Accomodation

  • Pilgrims’ hostel in El Palacio (€12 per night for a bunk bed)​

  • Private accommodation in the village (for further information, please see the contact details)​

  • The area offers a wide range of hotels

Meals

There are grocery shops in the village and a bar-restaurant.

Prices and enrolment

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Current students - €275

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Auditors - €120

Please send the registration form, together with proof of payment for the course fee and accommodation (if required), either by post or by email to the following addresses:

Escuela-Taller de Música Antigua de León
Palacio de los Condes - Plaza El Conde, s/n
24340 Grajal de Campos (León)
……….
grajalmusica@gmail.com

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