COR DE NOIES DE L’ORFEÓ CATALÀ (Spain)

Josep Surinyac, piano
Pere Lluís Biosca, conductor

The Choir
It is a highly enriching experience for the Escola Coral, as it gives choristers coming out of the Cor Infantil the chance to complete their choral education in a choir for girls.
The 34 members of the choir, aged between 16 and 25, explore the choral possibilities of their voices through a weekly work programme that includes both voice training and rehearsals.

Biography
The choir forms a part of the Escola Coral de l’Orfeó Català and is made up of singers aged between 16 and 25, most of whom began their musical training in the Escola’s children’s choirs. Founded in 2000 and directed by Lluís Vilamajó for its first seven years, Pere Lluís Biosca is the current director and Josep Surinyac the pianist.
It has worked with the conductors Pablo Heras, Xavier Sans, Javier Busto and Tomàs Grau, as well as with the singers Mireia Pintó and Dolors Aldea and the teacher Francisco Poyato. It has also worked with the organist David Malet and recently with the Orchestra Camera Musicae.
In 2005 it won second prize in the girls’ choir category at the Cantonigròs International Music Festival Competition.
It has appeared in various places around Catalonia, including Salou, El Masnou, El Vendrell, Esplugues de Llobregat, Girona, El Prat de Llobregat, Viladecans, Sant Guim, Manlleu, Verdú, the monastery of Poblet, Lleida and Cervera, among others, and at Orbays and Paris as part of the series Les Concerts de Radio France.
During its career the Cor de Noies has performed with, among others, the Grup Orquestral de Girona conducted by Pablo Heras and has played an important role in different seasons at the Palau de la Música Catalana: Concerts d’Estiu al Palau (2001), with a performance of G.B. Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater with the Orquestra de Cambra de Granollers, conducted by  Francesc Guillén; Els Diumenges al Palau (2002), performing M. Haydn’s Vespers, together with La Maîtrise de Radio France and the ONCA, conducted by Manuel Valdivieso; Concerts de Tarda al Palau (2003), featuring a programme of Cuban and Catalan music with the ensemble Gema 4; Cicle d’Orgue (2005), with the organist Carlos García Bernal, and in the Concert de Nadal in the Palau 100 series (2005), with the  tenor Josep Carreras and the City of London Sinfonia. The Cor de Noies has also taken part in both editions of the Cicle Coral de l’Orfeó Català (2011 and 2012), the series of concerts dedicated by the Palau de la Música to the top Catalan and foreign choirs.
In 2002 it took part as a guest choir at the Festival de Jóvenes Intérpretes y Nuevas Tendencias in Estivaliz, and in Frankfurt in 2007 together with the ONCA at the opening of the Book Fair devoted to Catalonia. In 2010 it performed at the Cicle de Música Sacra in Cardona, and at the Festival Asturias Joven (Avilés). In the 2010-11 season it took part in an exchange with the Mainz Vocal women’s choir directed by Thomas Hanelt.
On the occasion of its fifth anniversary the choir premiered Bernat Vivancos’ Mass for Choir and Bells.
In 2002 it took part in the recording of the CD Cantem aquest Nadal and in 2004 it recorded its first disc, Viatjant… It recently brought out the CD Germinans for Columna Música, featuring a collection of works for women’s voice choirs and organ together with the organist David Malet.
In June 2014 it premiered Els Planetes by Jordi Domènech, a work written specially for the choir, and this season it will perform the programme La Venècia de Vivaldi – “Vivaldi’s Venice”, a selection of works by Vivaldi and other composers of the time – together with the orchestra Vespres d’Arnadí conducted by Manel Valdivieso, as part of the Cicle Coral Orfeó Català 2015.
The Fundación Banco Santander is the patron of the Escola Coral de l’Orfeó Català.

Pere Lluís Biosca, conductor
Considered one of the highest-profile Catalan choral conductors, Pere Lluís Biosca has a busy schedule as director of several ensembles and a teacher of choral conducting. Born in Vilafranca del Penedès in 1977, he trained in Barcelona under Mireia Barrera, Josep Vila and Pierre Cao, and in Helsinki under Matti Hyökki.
His interest in early music led him to set up La Xantria, a vocal ensemble dedicated to reviving and performing the pre-19th century Catalan repertoire, with which he has made two recordings for Musièpoca of unpublished music by Josep Mir i Llussà and Tomàs Milans i Godayol. It should be pointed out that the disc devoted to music by Josep Mir i Llussà with La Xantria and Vespres d’Arnadí won the Museé d’Or prize for the best European recording in summer 2011, among others.
As a conductor, he has also worked with the Gran Teatre del Liceu, preparing the choral parts for various productions, including L. Balada’s Hagman Hagman, among others.
He is currently conductor, as he has been since its foundation, of the Cor de Cambra ARSinNOVA, with which he has won numerous awards – including the National Choral Singing Prize (Gijón, 2013) – conductor of the Cor de Noies de l’Orfeó Català, of the Cor de Cambra Francesc Valls de la Catedral de Barcelona and of the Cor d’Homes d’Igualada.

With the collaboration of