Desert Baroque
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Desert Baroque is sponsored by the Collaborative Arts and Culture Foundation. Donations to Desert Baroque are tax exempt under IRS Code 501(c)(3).
The Baroque Era in a Modern Age
Gilbert Martinez is the Artistic Director of MusicSources, Center for Historically Informed Performance (www.musicsources.org). MusicSources is based in Berkeley, California and has been internationally recognized for its presentations of early keyboard concerts, as well as its collection of early keyboard instruments.
He studied harpsichord wth Laurette Goldberg (the founder of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra and MusicSources) at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He subsequently lived in Italy to further his studies, upon the invitation of the distinguished baroque opera specialist and harpsichordist Alan Curtis.
Gilbert was Alan Curtis’ assistant conductor for a successful production of Handel’s “Serse”. In the following seasons, he conducted two wildly popular productions of Monteverdi’s “L’Incoronazione di Poppea” and “Il Ritorno d’Ulisse in Patria” for Berkeley/West Edge Opera.
In 2007, Gilbert Martinez directed a collaboration between MusicSources and U.C. Santa Cruz in an unprecedented exploration of a late renaissance intermedio “Le Delizie di Posilipo, 1620.” This led to a major recreation and fully staged production involving over 60 musicians, dancers, actors and theater historians over a semester long project, which included a detailed recreation of the “special effects” documented in the original eyewitness accounts from 1620.
As a recitalist and soloist, he has performed the complete works of Jean-Philippe Rameau, entirely from memory, in the USA, Canada, and in Scandinavia. This past season he appeared with Early Music Alberta as a soloist with Elizabeth Wallfisch in the complete Brandenburg Concerti, and as a guest soloist with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under Jeffrey Kahane.
Making his new home in Copenhagen, Denmark, he is a regular collaborator with a young baroque orchestra, Copenhagen Soloists, and has appeared frequently with Tidlig Musik i Danmark (Early Music Denmark), The Copenhagen Renaissance Festival, and MidsommerBarok Festival. This past summer he taught masterclasses in Ljubljana, Slovenia at the ACADEMIA MVSICÆ ANTIQVÆ LABACENSIS.
Gilbert Martinez currently serves on the board of directors for Tidlig Musik i Danmark.