La Boz Galana & Concerto Scirocco 

La Boz Galana was created in 2011 in Basel, Switzerland, by singers and instrumentalists from Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and France. The ensemble’s name ("the gallant voice" in English) uses the orthography of the 16th and 17th centuries. It's an expression that could be used in poems to describe a song beautifully sung or a text gallantly proclaimed. 

Under the direction of Sebastián León—baritone, early music specialist, and doctor of Spanish literature—this ensemble is particularly dedicated to the interpretation of Renaissance and Baroque Iberian and Latin American repertoire. Recently, they have been combining musical projects with research on the relationship of these musical styles with poetry and literature. 

La Boz Galana has performed mostly in France and Switzerland (Concerts du Conservatoire de Nantes, Festival Vochora, Festival du Mont Blanc, Festival de Froville, Les Goûts réunis, and Les Musicales de Redon, among others), and more recently in Colombia. Their first CD, with villancicos and motets by the Spanish composer Matías Durango, was released in 2015. The group’s second album, D’Amor mormora il vento (edited by Ramée), was released in 2020 and featured Spanish and Italian songs and dances of the 17th century. The album received a warm reception from the critics and was nominated to the ICMA 2021 prizes in the category “baroque vocal."

Under the direction of the Swiss-Italian recorder player and historical bassoonist Giulia Genini, the versatile ensemble Concerto Scirocco combines personal creativity with a deep awareness of performance practice on historical instruments. Concerto Scirocco’s six album recordings to date have received praise and attention from international critics: five Diapasons and the Diapason Découverte award from Diapason Magazine, a Choc du mois recommendation from Classica, five Sterne Musica Magazine awards, Album of the Month at The Classic Review and RSI Rete Due, Clef d’Or Classica, and several nominations for the German Record Critics’ Award.

Winner of the SRF Swiss Radio Television competition “Kulturplatz” 2021, selected as one of the best cultural projects among more than 60 other artists, Concerto Scirocco regularly performs at major festivals and concert halls across Europe. These include the Philharmonie Berlin Festival Barockwochenende, Wiener Konzerthaus Festival Resonanzen, Innsbrucker Festwochen der Alten Musik, Sastamala Gregoriana Finland, Festival Internacional de Musica de Gaia, Festival Misteria Paschalia Krakow, Brunnenthaler Konzertsommer, Glazbene Večeri u Sv. Donat Zadar, Varaždin Musical Evenings, Midi Musique Basel, LAC Lugano Arte Cultura Concert Hall, Les Concerts de l’ADMA in Fribourg, Paesaggi Musicali Toscani, Festival di Musica Antica in Magnano, Fabulous Fringe Festival in Utrecht, Festival Alte Musik Live in Berlin, and Festival Freunde Alter Musik Basel, among others.

The project offers a fresh perspective on the villancico tradition, revealing how portrayals of common people from diverse origins register the complex dynamics of global mobility and cross-cultural exchange in the New World. It highlights the cultural diversity and artistic vitality that flourished in seventeenth-century Spanish America and brings to light a rarely performed repertoire too often overshadowed by European music. The program showcases the depth and vibrancy of devotional songs from viceregal Mexico—not only through the voices and instruments of the international musicians of La Boz Galana and Concerto Scirocco, but also through the rhythmic, melodic, poetic, and linguistic richness of Gaspar Fernández’s works.