Gara Quartet was established in 2020 as a response to the concerns and desire of its four young musicians to explore the genre of the string quartet from the perspective of historical interpretation, having a humanist vision of its own affections, combining passion and technique, rhetoric and grammar.
The challenge of integrating new performative perspectives without moving away from the stylistic trends corresponding to each era is, along with the pursuit of an identity and a unique hallmark, the main raison d'être of the Gara Quartet.
After its members specialised at the most prestigious universities for the study of Historical Performance in Europe (Cologne, Trossingen, The Hague, Frankfurt), the ensemble settled in Cologne, as an active cultural hub and centre of its movements. Musicians such as Shunske Sato, Amandine Beyer, Olivier Fourès, Roel Dieltiens, Lars Ulrik Mortensen and quartets such as Casals or Quiroga inspire the four performers in their development.
Aside from their devotion to the quartet, its members continue their individual careers collaborating with several of the most important orchestras on the current music scene, such as Concerto Köln, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Le Concert des Nations, Bach Vereniging, Orchester of the Eighteenth Century, performing in the most important concert halls in Europe, North and South America and Asia.
The quartet is focusing its upcoming programmes on different aspects: from the formal origin of the quartet studying the evolution of the repertoire preceding it, up to interdisciplinary concepts based on universal ideas, mixing classical and contemporary music.
The recovery of the Spanish heritage that is still “hidden” in the libraries of the Spanish Royal Palace is another of the bases in the programming of its concerts, the Canaries and Madrid, the regions its members come from, will be essential for the development of this young but experienced ensemble.
Jesús Merino, violin
Jesús Merino is a violinist renowned for the fantasy and energy that his performances exude. Equally sought-after as a concert master/conductor, chamber musician and soloist, the diversity of his activities reflect his versatility and character as a musician.
Fascinated by historically-informed performance, it has become the main field of his activity as an artist. He is the concertmaster-guest conductor of Concerto Köln and La Chapelle Harmonique, with whom he regularly performs as a soloist. He also collaborates with some of the most important baroque groups on the current scene, such as the Collegium Vocale Gent, Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Bach Akademie, Il Convito, Compagnia di Punto and Cölner Barockorchester, among others.
As a modern violinist, he is a member of the Geneva Camerata, as one of the group´s concertmasters. He also acts as the guest concertmaster with the Kürpfälzisches Kammerorchester of Mannheim and collaborates with Spira Mirabilis.
As a member of the Cuarteto Klimt (2011-2015) he has performed in the country´s most important concert halls and festivals: Palau de la Música Catalana, Juan March Foundation, Granada Music and Dance Festival, Schubertíada in Vilabertrán, …after winning 1st prize in the 80th Musical Youths of Spain Competition (2013).
He has recorded for RNE, Catalunya Música, SWR, NDR, SFR, and more recently alongside Concerto Köln for the labels Sony Classical and Berlin Classics, notably including a live recording of the programme 'A Quattro Violini', performing as the soloist alongside the other 3 concertmasters of Concerto Köln: Shunske Sato, Mayumi Hirasaki and Evgenii Sviridov. This programme also toured around the United States and Canada in February-March 2020, with concerts in prestigious concert halls, such as Lincoln Center in New York, Library of Congress in Washington and the Mandell Hall in Chicago, among others.
Born in Cuenca in 1991, he began violin studies with Ruth Olmedilla. He subsequently undertook higher studies at the Higher Conservatoire of Music of Aragon, and after finishing them, he moved to Berlin where he studied a Master´s in Chamber Music with Professor Eberhard Feltz at the Hochschule für Musik "Hanns Eisler". He continued with a Solo Performance Master´s degree at the Hochschule für Musik Luzern with Professor Sebastian Hamann, before continuing with a Master´s in Historical Performance with Professor Petra Müllejans at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Frankfurt.
Since September 2020 he has been Professor of Baroque Violin and Historical Performance at the Higher School of Musical Arts in Madrid.
Lorena Padrón, violin
Born in Tenerife, she started on the violin with Korstiaan Kegel and completed the Middle Grade with professor Fernando Rodríguez. Under the supervision of Patricio Gutiérrez, she obtained the Higher Grade in violin at the Higher Conservatoire of Music of Salamanca, with top grades.
In 2011 she continued her training at the Kunstuniversität Graz (Austria) with Vesna Stankovic and Stephan Goerner. After obtaining the Master of Arts degree in 2016, she decided to further study early music and enrolled at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne (Germany), where she completed the Master´s specialising in baroque violin with Richard Gwilt.
She is currently a member of the Tenerife Baroque Orchestra, Recreation Symphonisches Orchester and Recreation Barock (Austria), and regularly works with different orchestras such as Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Concerto Köln, Spira Mirabilis, Capella Augustina, Cölner Barockorchester or Les Ambassadeurs, among others.
Iván Sáez Schwartz, viola
Iván Sáez Schwartz (1992, Canary Islands, Spain). He began his violin studies at the age of 5 at the Music School in his home town with the maestro Ludek Engler. At the age of 16 he decided to switch to viola and completed the “middle grade” at the Conservatoire of Music of Tenerife with the highest grades. In 2012 he was accepted into the Higher Conservatoire of Music of the Canaries and was part of Macarena Pesutic Hecker´s class. Two years later, in 2014, Iván was accepted as an exchange student with the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in the class of Mikhail Zemtsov and at the same time he began his baroque studies with Enrico Gatti. He decided to go for an audition and was accepted as a regular student of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague in 2015 in the class of Asdis Valdimarsdottir, and at the same time he took classes from Walter Reiter on baroque violin and viola. In 2016 he graduated with high grades and was accepted into the “Master of Music” of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. In 2018 Iván completed a dual master´s in modern and baroque viola.
As a baroque violist, Iván has undertaken courses and master classes with important figures from the early music community: Enrico Gatti, Walter Reiter, Ryo Terakado, Kati Debretzeni, Johannes Pramsohler, Jane Rogers and Shunske Sato, among others. In 2015 he was selected as the principal viola of the Baroque Jalisco Philharmonic Orchestra (OFJ) conducted by Leonardo García Alarcón. In 2016, he was selected to participate in a “USA-Dutch” tour led by Tom Koopman playing the Mass in B minor by J.S. Bach in both the United States and The Netherlands. Since 2018, Iván has been the principal viola of the “Tenerife Baroque Orchestra”.
Since 2019, Iván has played regularly with “Le concert des Nations” directed by Jordi Savall, and he collaborates with “Les arts Florissants", directed by William Christie. He is a regular musician with the “Bach Orchestra of The Netherlands”. He has played with groups such as the “Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century”, “Orquesta del siglo XVIII”, “La academia de los afectos”, “Den Haag Gallant Orchestra”, “Collegium Musicum Den Haag”, etc ...
Candela Gómez Bonet, cello
Born in Madrid, she began her music studies at the age of eight at the Arturo Soria Conservatory, and continued her training with Maria de Macedo. At the Higher Conservatoire of Music of Aragón she studied cello with Ángel Luís Quintana and chamber music with the Cuarteto Quiroga. In 2013 she completed her higher grade in music at the Conservatori Liceu in the cello speciality with the highest grades.
Candela Gómez Bonet, active internationally as a basso continuo player and chamber musician with ensembles and chamber groups from all over Europe devoted to the performance of the baroque and classical repertoire, completed her specialisation master´s at the Musikhochschule Trossingen, studying under the guidance of Werner Maztke. She received top honours from the University for her performance of the Gran Duo by Anton Kraft, a performance that made her a finalist at the York Early Music Festival.
During her years of specialised training, she broadened her technical knowledge with Roel Dieltiens, Bruno Cocset and Cristophe Coin, and for three years she attended the Manuel de Falla International Course, where she received classes from Jaap Ter Linden.
As the principal cello of the Baroque Orchestra of the European Union (EUBO, 2015-16), she has performed under the direction of Margaret Faultless, Rachel Podger and Lars Ulrik Mortenssen throughout Europe, visiting some of the best concert halls in Germany, United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Romania, Bulgaria and Malta.
She currently collaborates with different professional groups, such as the Irish Baroque Orchestra and Concerto Köln. Due to her passion for music composed for quartets, in 2020 she founded the Gara quartet, which studies and performs the evolution of the quartet from the end of the basso continuo up until the 19th century.