About this Artist
The Orfeó Català is one of the country's leading amateur choirs. The choir has over 130 years of history, and was founded in 1891 by Lluís Millet and Amadeu Vives to share choral repertoire from Catalonia and around the world, with the utmost artistic standards. Xavier Puig is the current choir director, while Pau Casan is the choir pianist. Simon Halsey has a close relationship with the choir as the key guest conductor and ambassador for Palau choirs. The Orfeó Català is based at the Palau de la Música Catalana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The Orfeó Català has performed some of the most recognisable works in choral repertoire, giving the first-ever performances in Spain of important works such as Bach’s Mass in B minor and Haydn's The Seasons. The choir has been led by a range of internationally renowned conductors: Richard Strauss, Pau Casals, Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Lorin Maazel, Daniel Barenboim, Simon Rattle, Gustavo Dudamel and Kirill Petrenko, to name just a few. The choir has given concerts at the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the Calouste Gulbenkian concert hall in Lisbon, and the Royal Festival Hall and Royal Albert Hall in London (for the BBC Proms). The Orfeó Català has toured in several countries: in China, at the invitation of the Shanghai International Art Festival; in Italy with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Daniele Gatti; in Paris with Gustavo Dudamel; in Luxembourg with Gustavo Gimeno; in Berlin with the Berliner Philharmoniker (April-May 2023), under the baton of Kirill Petrenko, (Berliner Philharmonie); in Barcelona (Sagrada Família) and Madrid (Teatro Real), with a programme dedicated to Mozart; and lastly with a performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with the Orchestre National de Lyon, under conductor Nikolaj Znaider, at the Auditori in Barcelona and at the Auditorio in Madrid (November 2023).
More recently, in February 2024 as part of the Palau 100 concert series, the Orfeó Català performed Brahms’ A German Requiem and Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 2, “Lobgesang” on stage with the Balthasar Neumann Chor & Orchester, conducted by Thomas Hengelbrock. These pieces were later performed in Hamburg by the Orfeó Català and the Hengelbrock ensembles. In January 2025, the Orfeó Català and the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona i Nacional de Catalunya took centre stage for a performance of Dream Requiem by Rufus Wainwright, directed by Ludovic Morlot at the Palau. In April and May, the choir performed Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Daniel Harding, in concerts in Stockholm, at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, and in Girona.
Over the 2025-26 season, the Orfeó Català will give a rendition of Verdi’s Messa da Requiem alongside Dresden’s Staatskapelle, conducted by Daniele Gatti, at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona and in Madrid. In addition, the choir will première Josep Ollé’s Te Deum, and will perform for the first time in the United States, in Los Angeles in February 2026, together with the Palau Cor de Cambra chamber choir and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra (LA Phil), under the baton of Gustavo Dudamel, with a rendition of Beethoven's Missa solemnis.
The Orfeó Català is sponsored by mesoestetic®.