Horns

Jairo Gimeno

In the orchestra since 2022

Jairo Gimeno was born in Valencia (Spain) in 1993. He started playing horn in the Benimaclet Musical Society with Prof. Gabriel Diago. After finishing with honors, bachelor studies in Valencia and also in Esmuc (Barcelona) with Javier Bonet, who discovered him the world of the period instruments, he continued his studies of Natural Horn with Teunis van der Zwart in The Royal Conservatory of The Hague (Netherlands) finishing in 2019. He has been a soloist and an artist of the musicAeterna orchestra since 2022.

He performs regularly with period music ensembles from all over Europe as: Freiburger Baroque Orquesta (Germany), Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century (Netherlands), Le Concert des Nations, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Il Pomodoro, Les Musiciens du Prince (Monaco), Capella Cracoviensis (Poland), Die Kölner Akademie (Germany), Ensemble Cristofori (France),

Das Neue Orchestra (Germany), Forma Antiqva (Spain), L’arte del mondo (Germany), The Haydn Philharmonie (Austria), La Ritirata (Spain), {oh!} Orkiestra Historyczna (Poland), La Chapelle Harmonique (France), Le Grande Chapelle (Spain), Academia 1750 (Spain), Le Concert Lorrain (France), or Baroque Ensemble of the Spanish National Orchestra among others.

In addition to his work on the period orchestras, he has worked with several orchestras like: Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, National Orchestra of Spain, Orquesta de la Comunidad Valenciana, National Youth Orchestra of Spain, Valencia Orchestra, Balear Islands Orchestra.

This has led him to participate in festivals as important as BBC Proms festival (UK), Salzburg Festspiele (Austria), Lucerne Festival (Switzerland), Diaghilev festival (Russia), SWR Schwetzinger Festspiele (Germany), Prague Spring Music Festival (Czech Republic), Chopin International Festival (Poland), Bessançon Music Festival (France), Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod (Wales), Gijón Early Music Festival (Spain) or Aldea dos Caputxos Music Festival (Lisboa, Portugal).

Additionally, he enjoys teaching and discovering the world of early music to new generations. He was the teacher of natural horn in the Salvador Seguí Conservatory (Spain) and participated as a teacher also in several masterclasses and courses.

DO YOU REMEMBER YOUR FIRST REHEARSAL WITH MUSICAETERNA?

It was in 2017, I was invited to take part in the performance of Mozart's "Mercy of Titus". I remember how I arrived in Perm late at night, and a few hours later I was already at the rehearsal. At that moment I had totally no idea where I was, and all that chaos was around: the orchestra was warming up and everyone was speaking Russian. I thought: "Lord, where did I get myself into?" But then Teodor came and, without saying a word, showed the auftact. I was shocked, because I had never heard anything more powerful. Soon I fell in love with the people around me and the passion with which they give their best at concerts and rehearsals. Now I am happy to be a part of musicAeterna, it gives me an exceptional opportunity to play both historical and modern horn.

WHY DID YOU CHOOSE YOUR INSTRUMENT?

By the time I entered my bachelor's degree in my native Valencia, I had no idea what a natural horn was. A year later, I heard Javier Bonet playing it, and I was just amazed by all the shades, sonority, and notes that I had not heard before. It was under his supervision that I started learning to play the horn at the Conservatory of Barcelona, and soon I absolutely fell in love with this instrument. Sometimes, when you play classical music on the right horn, for which the piece was written, you don't even need to know about the style — the instrument guides you, and everything happens magically on its own.

Historical horns are very different from modern ones. These are simple hunting pipes without any mechanisms, valves or tubes — only a mouthpiece, a curved pipe — the invention (by changing which, you can change the tuning) and a small bell. The main feature of historical horns is that you can play notes on them only in a natural scale. This imposes some restrictions on us, but musicians of the mid-eighteenth century discovered that you can change the key if you put your hand inside the bell. Thanks to this, we can play scales and expand the repertoire, using not only more notes, but also more timbre colours. In the upcoming concerts I will play on a replica of an instrument that you could have heard in the time of Mozart or the young Beethoven. Also, in my collection there are original instruments of the beginning of the 19th century — with stunning hand-decorated bells.

HOW MANY HORNS HAVE YOU GOT IN YOUR COLLECTION?

As a musician specializing in historical horns, I have collected an interesting collection in order to be able to perform music of one style or another on the "right" instrument — for which the work was written or, if we do not know for sure, at least a similar one. I own about 16 horns — original romantic and copies of instruments of the 18th century. Sometimes even same period pieces vary depending on the country. I dream of performing romantic music on my horns as part of musicAeterna, on occasion, in addition to compositions from the Baroque and Classicism eras.

WHAT DOES MUSIC MEAN TO YOU?

My parents work as teachers, but they enjoy listening to music in their free time. My father plays guitar, he has a huge collection of CDs - mostly with classical music. I started singing in the choir at the age of five, and since then, by the way, I've missed a lot of my friends' birthdays because rehearsals were on Fridays. As a teenager, I began to discover other genres: from heavy metal and punk to jazz and bossa nova. I usually go through several phases of passion for a genre: I go into it with my head down for a while, and then immediately move on to another one or stop listening to music altogether.

WHAT DO YOU DO IN YOUR FREE TIME?

In Valencia, I like to spend time on the beach on the Mediterranean coast. Although the sea is quite calm there, I like to surf whenever I have the chance. I am keen on photography, cooking, and I also love everything related to technology and gadgets, sound recording and sound editing for my channel. In this sense, one may call me a geek.