Jakob Bloch Jespersen & Peter Navarro-Alonso
Biography Jakob Bloch Jespersen & Peter Navarro-Alonso
Jakob Bloch Jespersen
acquired his initial musical education and interest in singing as a member of the Copenhagen Boy’s Choir. This led to his earning a diploma from the Royal Danish Academy of Music and to further studies at the Opera Academy of the Royal Danish Theatre.
In 2013, Jakob Bloch Jespersen was awarded the Music Reviewers’ Artist Prize, in 2014 the Aksel Schiøtz Prize, and in 2020 the Music Price of the Danish Composers’ society.
Jakob Bloch Jespersen made his stage debut at the Royal Danish Theatre in 2006, where he has subsequently taken part in among others Henry Purcell’s The Fairy Queen and Light – Bach Dances with Concerto Copenhagen, under the leadership of Lars Ulrik Mortensen. Worth mentioning is also his role as Leporello in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Norwegian National Opera, Basilio in Rossini’s The Barber in Seville, Pistola in Verdi’s Falstaff as well as a large number of roles in contemporary music theatre and opera.
As a concert singer, Jakob Bloch Jespersen is in demand throughout Europe, with a repertoire ranging from the 17th to the 21st century. He has especially concentrated on German Baroque music in collaboration with such ensembles as Concerto Copenhagen, Nieuwe Philharmonie Utrecht, Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Lautten Compagney, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Australian Brandenburg Orchestra with conductors such as Stephen Layton, Johannes Leertouwer, Andrea Marcon, Olof Boman, Paul Hillier, Andrew Lawrence-King, and Lars Ulrik Mortensen.
In the contemporary repertoire, Jakob Bloch Jespersen has taken part in numerous world premiers in collaboration with ensembles such as Theatre of Voices Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin, Figura Ensemble, Scenatet, and London Sinfonietta.
Amongst his extensive discography are Kurt Weill’s Berliner Requiem on the label Glossa, the Grammy Award and Pulizer Prize-winning Little Match Girl Passion by David Lang with Theatre of Voices on Harmonia Mundi, and several recordings on the Danish label Dacapo, including Poul Schierbecks opera Fête Galante with Danish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, DVD-recording of Carl Nielsen’s Maskarade, the part of Christus in the three passions of Heinrich Schütz with Ars Nova Copenhagen and Paul Hillier, numerous recordings of early German baroque cantatas with both Theatre of Voices and Concerto Copenhagen, and not least own productions of Sacred Songbooks of the 17th and 18th century Danish hymnists Thomas Kingo and Hans Adolf Brorson.
Since 2023 Jakob Bloch Jespersen has been teaching singing at the Danish National Academy of Music (SDMK) in Odense.
Peter Navarro-Alonso
The compositional focal point for Navarro-Alonso has always been the dramatic and narrative, along with a deep fascination with sound. His works repeatedly delve into the anatomy of timbre, turning it inside out, smashing it, and devouring it from within.
Through his compositions, he explores the human mind while striving to understand why the phenomenon of hope exists at all.
Navarro-Alonso has composed vocal music, chamber and orchestral works, two operas, as well as a number of pieces investigating the relationship between electroacoustic and acoustic instruments. He has been nominated for the Nordic Council Music Prize and the Danish Music Awards (four times), has received awards from the Danish Arts Foundation, and in 2023 was granted Denmark’s most restigious national music prize, the Carl Nielsen and Anne Marie Carl-Nielsen Honorary Award.
