As part of the Robert Gerhard Biennial, this session offers an approach to the artistic and personal relationship between Robert Gerhard and Conxita Badia, one of the most important Catalan performers of the 20th century. The introductory talk will be given by Mireia Domènech and Pep Gorgori, and will be complemented by the performance of works by Gerhard and Alban Berg by Alba Valdivieso, soprano, and Carlos Bujosa, piano.

Robert Gerhard studied at the Granados Academy, later the Marshall Academy, where he met the soprano and pianist Conxita Badia (1897-1975). Among the works he dedicated to her, L’infantament meravellós de Shahrazada and the Catorze cançons populars catalanes stand out, some of which he also orchestrated.

The programme includes a selection from L’infantament meravellós de Shahrazada (1917-1918), an early work by Gerhard closely linked to Badia, alongside Alban Berg’s Sieben frühe Lieder —Seven Early Songs— (1905-1908), in dialogue with the Central European tradition of the early 20th century.

In 2026, the celebration of the centenary of Conxita Badia’s death, which began the previous year, comes to an end. Mireia Domènech, the artist’s great-granddaughter and curator of the year dedicated to her by the Government of Catalonia, has carried out intensive and fruitful research that reveals previously unknown aspects of her biography.