He studied piano with Margarita Serrat and Montserrat Almirall, and composition with Salvador Pueyo at the Conservatory of Liceu, and he graduated with honors in conducting with Albert Argudo at the Conservatory of Barcelona. In 2000 he was admitted to the Conservatory of Vienna, where he studied conducting with Georg Mark and Reinhard Schwarz. He also has attended several conducting and composition courses in which he has studied with conductors such as Ovidiu Balan, Robert Gutter, Manuel Hernández Silva, Collin Metters, Antoni Ros Marbà and composers such as Carles Guinovart and Albert Sardà. In 2008 he met Joan Guinjoan who became one of his main mentors.
In 1994 he won the Josep Mirabent i Magrans Competition for young musicians, with which he studied conducting and composition with Lou Harrison, Laszlo Heltay and Diego Masson, at the Dartington International Summer School. In 2005 he received a special mention of the selection jury of the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors, and won the assistant conductor position of Salvador Mas and Manel Valdivieso in the National Youth Orchestra of Catalonia. Along with his music studies he graduated as Electric Engineer at the Higher Technical School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona. His final project on a computer-assisted piano tuning method was awarded by the prize of the Industrial Engineers Association of Catalonia.
As a conductor he has performed at the Auditorium of Barcelona, the Off Liceu cycle of the Liceu Opera Barcelona, the Palau de la Música, the Barcelona Grec Festival, the Peralada Castle Festival, the Pocket Opera Festival of Barcelona and the Pau Casals International Music Festival. He has conducted the Granada Symphony Orchestra, The Córdoba Symphony Orchestra, the Ibiza Symphony Orchestra, the Elche Symphony Orchestra, the Giorquestra, the Camerata Musicae Orchestra. Internationally, he has debuted in America with the Mendoza Philharmonic Orchestra (Argentina) and conducted the Arts Symphony Orchestra of Culiacán (Mexico), the Orchestra of Catalogne (France), the Filarmonica Mihail Jora Bacau (Rumania) and the Thüringen Philharmonic (Germany). He also has conducted contemporary music ensembles such as Barcelona 216, Grup 21, Sitges 94 and the Barcelona Modern Ensemble of which is musical director from 2016.
As a composer he has written for a wide range of vocal and instrumental ensembles and genres, with which he has been awarded in several national and international competitions. His music has been performed by ensembles such as the Granada City Orchestra, the Galicia Symphony Orchestra, the Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra, Ibiza Symphony Orchestra, the Knox-Galesburg Symphony (USA), the Oare String Orchestra (UK), the Julià Carbonell Symphony Orchestra, the Giorquestra among others.
DO YOU WANT TO KNOW BETTER THE ARTIST?
Xavier Pagès Corella Web
PERFORMED WORKS
Camí de segons, for string orchestra
D'ençà que ella partí (premiere), for bariton and piano
Comiat (premiere), for bariton and piano
