Jordi Pons

Biography

Jordi Pons was born in Barcelona and started to play the clarinet from the age of ten. In 2000 he graduated from the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Zaragoza, Spain. That same year he went to London to study at the Royal Academy of Music. In 2004 he graduated from the Academy and started a Masters course (Solisten Diplom) at the Musik Akademie der Stadt Basel, receiving lessons from renowned clarinettist François Benda.

Jordi has been the recipient of several prizes and awards. He was the winner of the CIRIT Prize for Music and Research, Spain, the ‘Premio de Honor’ for Woodwind Solo Playing, Spain, the ‘Juventuts Musicals de Catalunya’ Prize, Spain, the ‘2002 Guinness Music in the Community Award’, and the ‘2004 Mortimer Development Award’, UK, and received 3^rd Prize in the V International Clarinet Competition Città di Carlino, Italy. In 2006 he was also awarded a scholarship from the Department of Culture in Catalonia.

As a soloist he has worked with many orchestras, performing, with great acclaim, the Mozart and Copland Concertos and, most recently, performing Nielsen’s Concerto with Basel Symphony Orchestra in Switzerland. In chamber music he has toured extensively, performing with players like Dame Felicity Lott, Vincent Lucas, Carlo Colombo, Felix Renggli, Emanuel Abbühl, Hartmut Rohde, Diego Chena, Nigel Clayton and the Pavão String Quartet. In 2008, he was invited to teach and perform at the ‘Pablo Casals International Music Festival’, France. In 2011 was invited to teach and perform at the MIMU Festival, in Uberlândia, Brazil.

His orchestral experience includes renowned orchestras like the Symphony Orchestra of Galicia, the Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu (Opera House of Barcelona) Spain & Camerata Bern, Switzerland and working with conductors like Sir Colin Davis, Kurt Masur, Bertrand de Villy, Keneth Kreisler, Sir Charles Mackerras, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Robert King, Trevor Pinnock, amongst others.

Jordi has recorded an album with Camerata Bern, with Antje Weithaas and Alexander Lonquich, and is now working on a new project, which includes pieces for clarinet and electronics from composers Steve Reich, Luciano Berio and Pierre Boulez.

Friday

Piazzolla & Jazz

Américas do Séc. XX

"Metamorfoses"

CAAA Centro para os Assuntos da Arte e Arquitetura
Rua Padre Augusto Borges de Sá,
4810-523 Guimarães

4,5 6 May 2012 - 22.00h.

Guimarães 2012 / Mundo Razoável.

Dancer: Carlos Silva,
Bass Clarinet: Jordi Pons,
Violin: Emanuel Salvador

Choreography: Cláudia Marisa
Composer: Dimitris Andrikopoulos
Lighting: Rui Damas,
Video: Nuno Tudela,
Costume Designer: Catarina Barros,
Producer: Inês Nogueira

Music Festival at Sea - November 2012

Tuesday

Meendelssohn - Camerata Bern

Though most are familiar with Mendelssohn's famous E minor Violin Concerto, and perhaps to a lesser extent the two mature piano concertos, less attention is paid to the youthful Concerto for violin, piano, and strings, penned when the composer was all of 14. This charming, graceful work demonstrates the amazing level of sophistication that Mendelssohn already possessed. The performance on his Claves album features an even lesser known version of the orchestral part that includes winds and timpani, rather than just a string accompaniment. While this is interesting as it is Mendelssohn's own work, there may have been good reason for the composer to promote the string-only version. Much of the elegance and lightness achieved with only a string orchestra is lost with the addition of winds and timpani, which also forces the soloists -- violinist Weithaas and pianist Alexander Lonquich -- to play with unwelcome heaviness. The same can be said of the string orchestra version of the Second String Quintet in B flat major (not B major or B flat minor, as listed in various locations on the album's cover and liner notes). The intimacy and refinement that can be found with a smaller chamber group is diminished, despite the well-executed performance of the Camerata Bern.