My story
I began my studies in early music at the Conservatory of Music in Toulouse, la Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional (France) with Philippe Matharel, a member of Les Sacqueboutiers. Subsequently I moved to Switzerland with a grant awarded by the Spanish and Swiss governments to study the cornet and performance at the Geneva Conservatory of Music, la Conservatoire de Musique de Genève, and at the Scola Cantorum Basiliensis where I was supervised by Bruce Dickey and in 2006 obtained the Higher Diploma (Diploma Superior) in Ancient Music.
As a Cornet player I have performed in different early music festivals, both national and international, with La Reverencia, Concerto Italiano, Los afectos diversos, Barockorchester Frankfurt, El canto de Orfeo, Tiento Nuovo, Capilla Compostelana, Collegium Vocale Lenzburg, La Capilla Real, Ministriles Hispalensis, Oniria, Capilla Joanina, Ludovice Ensemble, Ottava Rima, etc.
The repertoire of my recordings ranges from the Cantigas de Alfonso X el Sabio to the Vísperas de la Beata Virgen by Claudio Monteverdi.
In the world of the stage, I have performed and recorded the film soundtracks of Juana la Loca (2001) by Vicente Aranda, La conjura de El Escorial (2008) by Antonio del Real, De oculta Philosophia (2008) by Antonio del Real La corona partida (2016) by Jordi Frades. I also participated musically in the play Viaje del Parnaso by Miguel de Cervantes presented by the Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico.
Since its inauguration in 2003 I am the director of the early music group Hexacordo, with whom I have given concerts in Spain, the United Kingdom, Slovenia, Portugal and Switzerland.
In the field of academia, I teach in the Department of Early Music in the Graduate School of Music of Extremadura (la Escuela Superior de Música de Extremadura), Musikex. I have also been involved as a teacher of the cornet, as a master of minstrels, member of an early music ensemble, and in the historical tuning and glosas in the Marcos Durán courses at the University of Extremadura and in the Early Music Courses of Extremadura and Galaroza (Huelva). As a music researcher I have taken part in the International Congress Hernán Cortés Hernán Cortés in Medellin (Badajoz), in the 7th Congress of the Spanish Society of Musicology and in the 1st Congress of the working group Music and contexts in the medieval and renaissance Iberian world organised by the Spanish Society of Musicology..
Currently, I am preparing a publication on the evolution of renaissance and baroque cornet playing on the Iberian Peninsula.
“Manuel Pascual shows a very appreciable agility on the cornet.
Everything sounds with coherence, grace and elegance"..”
Everything sounds with coherence, grace and elegance".
