ABOUT US

The Laborintus Harp Quartet was born and grew with the specific intention of commissioning new works from contemporary composers, taking into account innovations in recent harp performance techniques.

The Laborintus Harp Quartet was born in 2022 and is the natural evolution of the Adria Harp Quartet born in 2012. The name is inspired by Luciano Berio's famous work Laborintus II, recalling the intention to experiment with sonorities and rhythmic and performing techniques for this ensemble, allowing for an increase in the original repertoire for the harp quartet.

Several Italian composers have dedicated their works to the Laborintus Harp Quartet: in 2018, some of them were recorded with Tactus in the CD “Musica per quartetto d'arpe”.

The quartet's most important performances include Forfest in Kromeriz in the Czech Republic entirely with world premiere works, International Plucked String in Timisoara, Progetto Cage on the Water-Centro di ricerca musicale AngelicA-San Giacomo Festival respectively at Teatro Comunale, Teatro San Leonardo and Oratorio di S. Cecilia in Bologna, Teatro Manzoni in Milan with Selene Calloni Williams, Verona Risuona, Musica Attiva for the Ghirardi Foundation at Villa Contarini in Piazzola sul Brenta of Padua, Maskfest Italy and San Marino, Liszt Institute Foundation.

The objectives of the Laborintus Harp Quartet are varied: to raise the awareness of composers of our time in creating new works for this ensemble - also revisitations of symphonic and operatic repertoires - that highlight their peculiarities and enrich the repertoire with possible contaminations towards new technologies and sophisticated electronics; to perform “absolute” music by J.S. Bach; to select existing repertoires for harp ensembles; to open up to traditional popular genres.

Christian Passerini

After graduating with highest honors and improvement with the solo harp of the Israel Philharmonic, she began an intense solo, chamber and orchestral activity. Nextime, A. Toscanini, FontanaMix, I Virtuosi Italiani, I Solisti Dauni, Icarus, Octandre are some of the ensembles with which she has collaborated, also recording for the Dynamic and Arkadia labels. In orchestra, she has performed almost exclusively as first harp, playing with the OSI of Italian Switzerland, the Fondazione Toscanini of Parma, La Fenice of Venice, the Regio of Turin, the Arena of Verona, the Comunale of Bologna, the ORT Orchestra of Tuscany, the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the RAI orchestras of Naples and Milan, the Teatro Petruzzelli, the ORV, the Internazionale d'Italia, the Sinfonica of Sanremo, and the Young IPO. Always interested in research, experimentation and teaching, she has continued her studies on musical philology, aesthetics and praxis of music of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: at the Conservatorio “G. Verdi” in Milan, where she holds the chair of harp, she has introduced into the academic curricula a unicum, namely the practice of the works of Bach and great coeval composers that have always been marginalized in the harp world. Promulgation activities related to these fields can be described as recordings, concerts, seminars, master classes, lectures and interviews for specialized networks. Mention should be made in this regard of solo CDs published with the Milanese label La Bottega Discantica: the single “Georg Friedrich Händel, Harp Music” released in 2024 and awarded on MusicVoice with score 5/5, the box set “J.S. Bach, The French Suites” from 2020, awarded with 5 stars by Rivista Musica, and the single “J.S. Bach, Suites” from 2009 with booklets, respectively, by renowned musicologists such as Bruno Zanolini, Marco Moiraghi and Mario Baroni. In addition, he has published scores for Ut Orpheus and Rugginenti-Volontè, including Bach's Suite BWV 997, another first in the harp repertoire, which was selected as a compulsory test at the 50th International Harp Contest in Israel. Cristiana Passerini has also always been active on the contemporary music front, which she teaches in academic courses; she has performed several premieres of composers of our time and has commissioned works from many composers for the harp quartet, a chamber group she founded with her students, thus promiting an increase in original repertoire. Some of these works were recorded on a CD for Tactus in 2018, with booklet by Giordano Montecchi.

francesca miglierina

Francesca was born in Varese and approached music and the study of the harp as a child. She graduated in harp at the ‘Giuseppe Verdi’ Conservatory in Milan. She continued her studies in Germany, at the ‘Robert Schumann Hochschule’ in Düsseldorf and under the guidance of Fabiana Trani, obtaining a Master of Music with an orchestral focus and a Master of Music with a solo focus. During her studies, she participated in several National and International Competitions, obtaining numerous awards both in chamber music ensembles and as a soloist. Her journey as an orchestral professional began in Germany in 2014 when she won the public selection, with the role of first Harp, at the Osnabrück Theatre Orchestra. Francesca has collaborated with other major foreign orchestras with both symphonic and opera concert programmes such as the Tiroler Landestheater und Symphonieorchester Innsbruck, Düsseldorfer Symphonikern und Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Duisburger Philarmoniker, Göttingen Symphoniker, Aachener Symphonikern, Essener Symphonikern, Bielefelder Symphonikern. She has also taken part in numerous competitions and auditions for prestigious Italian orchestras and lyrical symphonic foundations, gaining eligibility for the Orchestra Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, the Orchestra Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestra Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the Orchestra Fondazione Haydn di Bolzano e Trento, the Orchestra Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, and the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano. During these years of intense activity in the orchestra, she had the privilege of playing under the baton of great conductors such as Adam Fischer, Fabio Luisi, Jordi Bernacèr, Giacomo Sagripanti, Marco Angius, Giampaolo Bisanti, Michael Güttler, Renato Palumbo. She recorded the CD entitled ‘Das Lied von der Erde’ by Gustav Mahler under the baton of Maestro Adam Fischer with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra in Germany (Düsseldorfer Symphoniker) and the CD entitled ‘Das Lied der Nacht op. 23’ by Hans Gál, an opera in three acts, under the baton of Maestro Andreas Hotz with the Osnabrück theatre orchestra in Germany (Osnabrücker Symphonieorchester). Francesca has always dedicated herself to teaching with great intensity, passion and dedication. She has taught harp at the ‘Francesco Venezze’ Conservatory of Music in Rovigo, at the ‘Antonio Buzzolla’ Conservatory of Music in Adria, and since 2024 she has been Professor of Harp at the ‘Domenico Cimarosa’ Conservatory of Music in Avellino.

Francesca Cavallo

Francesca Cavallo, born in Lecce, began studying the harp at the age of 8. She graduated from the Conservatory of her hometown and later obtained a Master's degree in solo performance in 2011. In 2017, she earned a Master's degree in Orchestra under the guidance of harpist Fabiana Trani at the Robert-Schumann-Hochschule in Düsseldorf (Germany). In 2023, she obtained a Master of Arts in Music Pedagogy at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana, studying with harpist Lorenza Pollini. As soon as she turned 18, she began performing with major orchestras in Italy, including the Orchestra della Fondazione Lirico Sinfonica Petruzzelli e Teatri of Bari, the Orchestra ICO Tito Schipa of Lecce, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Lucana. She has also played with various foreign orchestras, including the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Duisburger Philharmoniker, and the Tiroler Landestheater und Symphonieorchester of Innsbruck. In Italy, she collaborates and has collaborated with numerous orchestras, such as the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana of Lugano, the Orchestra Toscanini of Parma, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana of Palermo, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI in Turin, the Orchestra of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, etc. She has won numerous national and international competitions, both in duos (harp and cello or harp and flute) and as a soloist, such as the "First International Harp Competition Nicanor Zabaleta" in 2014. In addition to her intense orchestral activity, she engages in solo and chamber music performances in various ensembles, collaborating with several Italian and international associations. Since 2022, she has been the harp professor at the "G.P. da Palestrina" Conservatory of Music in Cagliari.

Leonardo Ciacci

Leonardo was born in Milan in 2001, where he began studying the harp at the “Il Classico Associazione di Musica e d'Arte” school with teacher C. Granata from 2008 to 2019. In 2015 he participated in the 5th edition of the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado National Music Competition, soloist category, obtaining a score of 99/100. In 2017 he participated in the 7th International Harp Contest “Suoni d'Arpa” in Saluzzo, obtaining the Diploma di Merito for the best interpretation of the compulsory piece. Since 2020 he has attended the academic diploma courses in Harp at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory in Milan with teachers C. Passerini and M.E. Bovio, and at the same time the Faculty of Letters at the State University of Milan. At the Milan Conservatory he attended master classes with F. Pierre, L. Belmondo and P. Stickney. After meeting jazz harpist M. Carboni, he passionately began studying and practicing improvisation, alongside transcriptions of various repertoire: his aim is to explore the intrinsic potential of his instrument and spread its versatility to an ever wider audience. In January 2024 he participated in the international chamber music project “Music for Future” held in Freiburg (DE) in collaboration between the Conservatories of Milan, Barcelona and Freiburg; during the autumn of last year, on the occasion of the Puccini centenary, he inaugurated his collaboration with OSCOM, the Symphony Orchestra of the Milan Conservatory. In 2025 he obtained the first level academic diploma with a grade of 110/110 cum laude and menzione d’onore.