ABOUT US

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

The Laborintus Harp Quartet group 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 intent to experiment with sounds and rhythmic and executive techniques for this formation, allowing, in fact, 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 on the CD “Music for harp quartet”.

Among the quartet's most important performances are the Forfest in Kromeriz in the Czech Republic with works entirely in world premiere, the International Plucked String in Timisoara, the Cage on the Water Project at the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, Verona Risuona, Musica Attiva for the Ghirardi Foundation at Villa Contarini in Piazzola sul Brenta in Padua, Maskfest Italia and San Marino.

The objectives of the Laborintus Harp Quartet are varied: to sensitize the composers of our time to create new works for this ensemble - including revisitations of symphonic and lyrical repertoire - that highlight its peculiarities and enrich the repertoire with possible contaminations towards new technologies and sophisticated electronics; to perform "absolute" music by JS Bach; to select existing repertoire for harp ensembles; to open up to traditional popular genres.

Christian Passerini

After graduating with top marks and specializing as a solo harpist at 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 the orchestra she has carried out activities almost exclusively as a first harp, playing with the OSI of Italian Switzerland, the Toscanini Foundation 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 di Sanremo, the Young IPO. Always interested in research, experimentation and teaching, she continued her studies on musical philology, aesthetics and practices of 17th and 18th century music: at the “G. Verdi” Conservatory in Milan, where she holds the chair of harp, she introduced into the academic study plans a unicum, namely the practice of the works of Bach and great contemporary composers who have always been marginalized in the world of the harp. The promulgation activities connected to these fields can be described as recordings, concerts, seminars, masterclasses, conferences and interviews for specialized networks. In this regard, the solo CDs published with the Milanese label La Bottega Discantica are mentioned: the single "Georg Friedrich Händel, Harp Music" released in 2024 and awarded on MusicVoice with a score of 5/5, the box set "J.S. Bach, The French Suites" of 2020, awarded with 5 stars by Rivista Musica and the single "J.S. Bach, Suites" of 2009 with librettos, respectively, by renowned musicologists such as Bruno Zanolini, Marco Moiraghi and Mario Baroni. She has also published scores for Ut Orpheus and Rugginenti-Volontè, including the Suite bachiana BWV 997, another novelty in the harp repertoire, which was selected as a mandatory test at the 50th edition of the International Harp Contest in Israel. Cristiana Passerini has always been active also on the contemporary music front, which she teaches in academic courses; He has performed several first performances of contemporary composers and has commissioned works from many composers for the formation of the harp quartet, a chamber music group he founded with his students, thus encouraging an increase in the original repertoire. Some of these works were recorded on a CD for Tactus in 2018, with a booklet by Giordano Montecchi.

Francesca Miglierina

Francesca was born in Varese and approached music and the study of the harp at a young age. She graduated in Harp at the “Giuseppe Verdi” Conservatory in Milan. She continued her studies in Germany, at the “Robert-Schumann-Hochschule” in Düsseldorf (Germany) and under the guidance of the harpist 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 formations and as a soloist. Her career as a professional orchestral musician began in Germany in 2014 when she won the public selection, with the role of first harp, at the Osnabrück Theater Orchestra. Francesca has collaborated with other important foreign orchestras with both symphonic and operatic concert programs such as the Orchestra of 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 participated in numerous competitions and auditions for prestigious Italian lyric-symphonic orchestras and foundations, obtaining the qualification at the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino in Florence, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Orchestra del Teatro Verdi in Trieste, the Orchestra della Fondazione Haydn in Bolzano and Trento, the Orchestra del Teatro Petruzzelli in Bari, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana in Palermo, the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano. During these years of intense activity in the orchestra she has had the privilege of playing under the direction of great Maestros including 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 direction of Maestro Adam Fischer with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra in Germany and the CD entitled “Das Lied der Nacht op. 23” by Hans Gál, an opera in three acts, under the direction of Maestro Andreas Hotz with the Osnabrück Theater Orchestra in Germany. Francesca dedicates herself to teaching with great intensity, passion and dedication. She 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 a full professor of Harp at the “Domenico Cimarosa” Conservatory 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, then in 2011 she obtained a Master's degree in solo music. In 2017 she obtained 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 Conservatory of Italian Switzerland with harpist Lorenza Pollini. As soon as she came of age, she began playing with important orchestras on the national scene, such as the Orchestra della Fondazione Lirico Sinfonica Petruzzelli e Teatri di Bari, the ICO Tito Schipa Orchestra of Lecce, and the Orchestra Sinfonica Lucana. He has played with several foreign orchestras, including the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, the Duisburger Philarmoniker, the Tiroler Landestheater Orchestra und Symphonieorchester of Innsbruck, while in Italy he 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 of Turin, the Orchestra del Teatro Comunale of Bologna, etc. He has won numerous national and international competitions, both in duo (harp and cello or harps and flute), and as a soloist, such as (in 2014) the "First International Competition for Harp Nicanor Zabaleta". Alongside his intense orchestral activity, he also performs as a soloist and in chamber music in various formations, collaborating with various Italian and foreign associations. Since 2022 he has been a full professor of Harp 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 of Merit 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 coming into contact with the jazz harpist M. Carboni, he passionately undertook the study and practice of 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.