What is Windu?

 

 

Windu is an UNUSUAL RECORDER QUARTET that combine EARLY AND MODERN REPERTOIRE with compelling and contemporary staging. Our goal is to break away from the traditional concert experience by offering appealing STAGE SHOWS FOR ALL AUDIENCES.

 

This aim led to the creation of several shows with a production which included stage direction, costume design, light design, sound design, and choreography in order to encourage the instrument to be known in a different and innovative way and to engage new audiences for classical music.

 

Windu has performed in MOSCOW, PRAGUE and throughout Spain (Festival Internacional de Santander, Festival de Música antigua de Úbeda y Baeza, Festival Antiqua de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Festival de Música de Puerto de la Cruz (Tenerife), La Gayarre del Teatro Real, Auditorio Centro Centro), and the premier of Wind was in Teatro Fernán Gómez (Madrid).

 

Windu has won four awards from the Association of Spanish Early Music Ensembles (GEMA), including: Best Youth Ensemble, Best Innovative Show (Under construction), Best Innovate Show (Wind) and the public choice award for Best Early Music Ensemble.

 

In addition, it was the finalist for the REMA (Early Music in Europe) Award for Best Innovative Show for Wind.

 

 

 

We don’t just play music. We don’t just do theatre.

 

We do Windu!

The Windu sound

 

A small human organ

 

Windu, not unlike a craftsman, works with the characteristic tone of the recorder to bring out the emotions in music which touch us most. For this reason, the group not only perform typical recorder ensemble repertoire, but also contemporary music. Windu commits to adopting an innovative perspective to early music arrangements, such as introducing the use electronic music.

 

Emerged at the end of the 14th century, the recorder is an instrument that has been evolving organologically according to the needs of each musical period. In this way, we can speak of five large groups of recorder models: medieval, renaissance, transitional, baroque and modern. Windu combines these models in each show according to the repertoire that they are playing.

 

Furthermore, we believe that the best way to promote our ancestral instrument is through a stage design which puts it the spotlight. For this reason, during the creative process we integrate our musical sound with theatrical stage direction in order to bring us closer to our concept of a comprehensive production.

EVA JORNET

 

Recorder player, early bassoon player and music educator at the Sabadell Conservatoire of Music (Barcelona). She has worked as a stage musician with the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico, Nao d’Amores company, Teatro Cornucopia and the Abadía theater. She has also performed as a soloist in several barroque operas at the Teatro Real of Madrid.

 

Eva studied at the Barcelona Conservatoire of Music, receiving the highest grade. She continued her studies at the Conservatoire Montserrat Caballé in Perpignan where she studied under Fanette Estrade and received a diploma in musical studies specialising in medieval music. Eva went on to obtain a Bachelor’s in Music at the Conservatoire of Music Manuel Castillo in Seville where she studied under Vicente Parrilla and received the highest grade. Awarded with an ERASMUS scholarship, she also studied under Pedro Couto Soares at the Lisbon Conservatoire of Music. She obtained a master’s in Early Music Performance at the Catalonia College of Music (ESMUC) and received several masterclasses with Maurice Steger in Switzerland. Eva has also been accepted to the Amsterdam Conservatoire of Music.

 

She has worked as a stage musician with the Nao d’Amores company, performing in nine of their shows, and has been involved in co-productions with the Abadía Theatre, the National Classical Theatre Company, and the Cornucopia Theatre in Lisbon, under the direction of Ana Zamora and the musical direction of Alicia Lázaro.

 

She has collaborated with various early music groups, including, Opus 5, Música Ficta, Tactus Collective, Orquesta de Cambra del Penedés, Sforzinda, and has performed as a soloist at the Teatro Real with the Madrid Symphony Orchestra.

 

In 2016, together with Marcel Leal, she created Windu, an ensemble which has received several awards and has performed at various festivals in different countries.

MARCEL LEAL

 

Recorder player, music educator at the Badalona Conservatoire of Music (Barcelona), scriptwriter, director, and industrial engineer.

 

Marcel Leal began studying the recorder under Eulàlia Galofré at the Premià de Mar School of Music. He later completed his training as a flautist under Ma Jesús Udina, Alexandrina Polo, Jordi Argelaga, Abel Puig, Sara Parés, Lluís Casso, Pedro Memelsdorff, among others. Marcel has completed several composition and orchestration courses taught by Alejandro Civilotti and Josep Soler. He has also studied synthesizer, sampling and sequencer programming related to electronic music. He recently completed a Master’s in Musicology and Interpretation of Early Music at the ESMUC and the University of Barcelona. He presented Ultreia et Suseia, a musical show for stage about the musical journey of the Camino de Santiago pilgrims, as his final project.

 

Marcel has a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC) where he received funding from UNESCO for his final project. He also completed a degree in Cinematographic Direction from the Cinema and Audiovisual School of Catalonia (CECC) and took several documentary and screenwriting courses taught by José Luis Guerín, Patricio Guzmán and Michel Gaztambide, among others. As a filmmaker, he has made a number of videos and short films. One of his most successful films, Los años del silencio (The Years of Silence), received several awards and was selected for more than 60 international festivals. In addition, he directed the documentary Otra forma de Curar (Another Way of Healing), which was filmed in Mali. Marcel has composed the music for several advertising campaigns, including Telefónica Imagenio channel’s Volkswagen con el cine (Volkswagen and the Cinema) campaign. He is also the screenwriter of various feature films which are currently in the pre-production phase.

 

As a recorder player, he has participated in and been a member of various productions and ensembles, including the Atem Trio, Dúo Scherzo, En Bloc Quartet, Sforzinda, Windu and Novum organum. Since 2010, he has taught the recorder and the Music and Modern Technologies course at the Badalona Conservatoire of Music, where he also directs the recorder consort.

IRIS MAÑÀ

 

Recorder player, harpist and music educator at the Badalona Conservatoire of Music and at the L’Ametlla del Vallès School of Music (Barcelona).

 

Born in Barcelona in 1991, Iris Mañà began studying the recorder at the Sant Andreu School of Music (Barcelona) and the harp at the Eixample School of Music (Barcelona). She continued her musical education at the Oriol Martorell School (arts specialist), the Bruc Conservatoire of Music, the Girona Conservatoire of Music and the Liceu Conservatoire .

 

She received her diploma in Musical Studies in Vienna, studying interpretation of the recorder under Professor Thomas List at the Music and Arts Private University of Vienna. Iris went on to obtain a bachelor’s degree with honours in Musical Education (specialising in the harp) from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna, where she studied under harpist, Andrea Hampl.

 

Since 2013, Iris has formed part of the Ancor Ensemble, playing the recorder and Gothic harp. It was with this ensemble that she received a scholarship from the Swiss foundation, Thyll-Dürr, in 2014, won the Bank Austria Award in 2015 and finished as a finalist in the International Young Artists Competition in York (2015). Since 2015, Iris has been the harpist for Live Musik Now, an organization founded by Yehudi Menuhin which programmes diverse concerts. She regularly collaborates with various orchestras, taking her to renowned concert halls across Europe, such as the Musikverein in Vienna, Brucknerhaus in Linz, Stefaniensaal in Graz, Barcelona’s Auditori and the Palau de la Música Catalana. Since 2018, she has sung soprano in Cor Bruckner Barcelona, performing in a range of musical projects, such as Beethoven’s Symphony No.9 at the Palau de la Música Catalana.

 

Iris currently combines her career as a professional performer with education and teaches the recorder, harp and musicianship at the L’Ametlla del Valles School of Music and the Badalona Conservatoire of Music.

CHRIS ORTON

 

Recorder player, conductor and Dalcroze Eurhythmics Specialist. Music educator at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester in addition to being the president of the ERTA branch in the United Kingdom.

 

He studied recorder in Birmingham UK with Ross Winters and Annabel Knight, and in Amsterdam with Anneke Boeke. He won 2nd Prize in the Krzysztof Penderecki Competition for Contemporary Music in 2006, a BBC Fame Academy Bursary in 2007, and 1st prize at the Moeck/SRP International Solo Recorder Player Competition in 2007.

 

As a teacher, Chris runs the recorder departments at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester, Chetham’s School of Music, is a guest tutor at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, and teaches at L’Escola Joan Llongueres in Barcelona. He is chair of the ERTA UK branch, and musical director for the National Youth Recorder Orchestras UK summer courses. He has given masterclasses and concerts in Singapore, Poland, Hungary, Germany, Spain and the UK, and premiered new compositions for recorder from composers worldwide.

 

Chris enjoys working with live electronics, multimedia and multi-disciplinary performance, and works with dance and theatre on a regular basis. He has recorded for NAXOS label.