Choirmaster

RAÚL BARRIO ALONSO

Born in Madrid, he begins his study of music at the age of 9 as a choirboy in the Choral School of the Sagrada Familia, where he performed in several concerts and opera festivals.

He completed successfully his studies in the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música of Madrid, earning degrees in high-level music theory, piano teaching and high-level choral conducting.

He has participated in numerous graduate-level courses in Spain, the UK (Canford School of Music), Austria (Wiener Meisterkurse), Irland (Irish World Academy) and also Germany (Musikhochschule Karlsruhe), for which he was awarded an Erasmus Grant to study conducting with Martin Schmidt.

In Musical Conducting he has studyed with the best spanish conductors of the XX century, such as E. García Asensio, M. A. Gómez Martínez, J. Pons, J. López Cobos, and A. Ros-Marbá.

He founded and served as Director of the Coro de Voces Blancas of the RCJ (1993-1999), and the group was awarded a number of prizes and recorded a CD; the Children’s Chorus of the Municipal School of Music of Majadahonda (1999-2004); and the Children’s Chorus of the school Saint Louis des français (2005-2007).

He also founded and directed the Coral Polifónica Reinado (2000), made up of amateur singers from the Retiro neighborhood of Madrid, as well as the chorus Canticorum of the Municipal School of Music of Majadahonda (1999-2004). He directed the Chorus of the Pharmacists’ Association of Madrid (2004) and the Ad Libitum chamber choir on a number of occasions, recording the CD Voces del Mundo with the group.

He served as conductor for orchestra, band, and chorus at the Music Conservatory Tomás Luis de Victoria in Ávila (2004), where he organized numerous concerts in some of the most distinguished performance spaces in the city (e.g., Auditorio de San Francisco, Patio del Episcopio, the Cathedral of Ávila).

In 2005, alongside a group of music-loving friends, he was a founding member of the Coro Garoé and was also called on to direct the Coro Aldebarán in Madrid (until 2014). In 2013 founded the Coro iberoamericano de Madrid, for the Organización de Estados Iberoamericanos, which he conducts currently.

Under his leadership, Garoé has maintained a high level of activity, performing regularly in concerts both in Madrid and other regions of Spain as well as abroad. In Madrid, the group has performed in a number of high-profile locations, such as Museo de América, Ateneo, Casa de Cantabria, Colegio Oficial de Arquitectos, Real Sociedad Económica Matritense de Amigos del País, Casa de Cultura Carmen Conde (Majadahonda), Hospital de Fuenlabrada, Monasterio de Santa María de El Paular, among others. Outside of Madrid, in Toledo, Granada, Oviedo, Córdoba, Vitoria, Burgos, Sigüenza, Segovia and the Colegiatas of Covarrubias (Burgos) and Pastrana (Guadalajara).

The group has travelled to Istanbul (2009), Malta (2010), Aosta in Italy (2012 y 2013), Varsaw (2015) and Lisbon (2016).

Raúl Barrio is also a member of the Real Academia de Bellas Artes y Ciencias Históricas in Toledo.