Dr. xavier alern

Born in Barcelona and currently residing in Baridà (Catalan Pyrenees), Xavier Alern started self-taught at the age of 13, deeply influenced by the early creative stage of the great Mike Oldfield. He started his musical studies at the Taller de Músics in Barcelona and at the Luthier School of Musical Arts, where he had as guitar teachers the concert players Arnaldur Arnarson, Fernando Rodríguez, William Waters and Àlex Garrobé.

He received the Honor Award for the Intermediate Guitar Degree from the Sabadell Conservatory and obtained the Higher Degree in Music at the Alicante Superior Conservatory. He also graduated in Professional sound and Music production at the Center for Image Studies in Barcelona.

​

Later he received master classes from guitarists such as Zoran Dukic, Oscar Ghiglia, Carles Trepat, Xavier Coll, Nacho Rodes and Hopkinson Smith.

​

Strongly interested in early music, he studied Renaissance and Baroque plucked strings at the Vila-Seca Conservatory.

​

His humanistic concern led him to study Philosophy and History and Music Sciences at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). In 2010 he obtained a Master's degree in Musicology and in 2015 he received a Doctorate in History of Art and Musicology (PhD) with a doctoral thesis supervised by Drs. Maricarmen Gómez Muntané (UAB) and Paloma Otaola González (University of Lyon). The doctoral thesis deserved the Extraordinary Doctorate Award of 2015.

​

 

Xavier Alern has a versatile personality that encompasses different facets. As a teacher he has worked in conservatories such as the ESEM-Taller de Músics or the Conservatori Superior del Liceu in Barcelona, and since 2011 he has been an associate professor of Musicology at the UAB. He is also a researcher and performer, a contributor to popular music magazines and was director of his own Early Music Festival.

​

In the last decade, he has developed his concert activity around Renaissance and Baroque music, forming a duet with the prestigious lutenist William Waters and with his own formation, Fortuna d'un gran tempo, performing more than thirty concerts and collecting great success from critic and public.

​

 

He currently composes his first album and directs Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells project (1973-2023), a tribute to Mike Oldfield on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the publication of his debut feature.