High School of Music Forum Musikae

Xavier Barbeta (1976) studied at the Conservatory of Music of Badalona with Nati Cubells, where he obtained the degree of Piano with the highest grades and the Honorary Awards of the Conservatory. Later, continued his education in Russia with pianist Leonid Sintsev at the Rimsky-Korsakov St. Petersburg Conservatory (1997-2002). He also received masterclasses from Ricardo Cechetti, Guennady Dziubenko, Igor Lebedev, Paul Badura-Skoda, Pierre Reách, Edith Fischer, Victor Teuflmayr, Dimitri Bashkirov and Anto Pett, among others.

1st prize at the Jacinto Guerrero National Piano Competition (Toledo, 1995), and 4th prize at the Dichler-Sato Competition (Vienna, 2002), has performed in recitals and chamber ensembles in Spain, Austria, Italy and Russia. In 2003 he made his debut as a soloist at the Auditori de Barcelona, ​​performing Gershwin’s Rapsodhy in Blue, and from 2005 until today he has been a regular collaborator of the Barcelona and National Symphony Orchestra of Catalonia (OBC). He has participated in numerous instrumental projects and recordings with groups such as BCN-216, Barcelona Symphony Band, Murtra Ensemble and Fermata Contemporània. He has recorded solo piano works by Beethoven, Schumann and Mompou for Anacrusi.

As a pedagogue he worked at the Professional Conservatory of Music of Terrassa (2007-2009) and has been, since 2005, a professor at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya (ESMUC). He has taught courses and master classes at different music schools and Professional Conservatories in Catalonia and Spain, at the Tallinn Academy of Music and Theater, at the Umberto Giordano Conservatory in Foggia and at the Puigcerdà International Summer Music Academy.

In 2010 he obtained the DEA in Musicology from the UAB with a study on the Fantasia Baetica by Manuel de Falla. He has translated from Russian into Catalan different articles on children’s piano pedagogy by the famous Russian pedagogue Samari Savshinskii. From 2012 to 2016 he regularly participates in the working groups of the ICON (Innovative Conservatoire) Seminars in the UK.

He has been a member of juries for piano competitions such as the Sant Cugat Musical Youth Competition (2011), Benaguasil Piano Competition (2012) or Ciutat de Mataró Competition (president of the jury since 2016). He is a founding member of the Leonid Sintsev Piano Association and president of the Vilassar de Mar Joventuts Musicals that organizes the annual “Rosa Sabater” Music Festival.