Francesca Torelli was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy. After earning a degree in lute with the highest marks at the Conservatory of Verona under the guidance of Orlando Cristoforetti, she completed her studies with Nigel North at the Guildhall School of Music in London. At the same time, she studied renaissance and baroque singing, initially participating in the courses held by the Deller Consort and later with Auriol Kimber.

From the beginning, her concert activities have featured the repertoires for voice and lute (singing while accompanying herself on the instrument), as well as the solo repertoire for lute and theorbo and basso continuo.

As a soloist, she has participated in numerous festivals in Italy and abroad, including the Autunno musicale of Como, the Festival di Musica Barocca in Rome, the Festival di Tours, the Settimana Internazionale Frescobaldi in Ferrara, the Petertide Music Festival of London, and many others.

She has collaborated with the orchestra of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, the Vivaldi ensemble of the Solisti Veneti, and with various choirs and chamber orchestras.
She has performed in duo with the flutist Liz Horrigan, the singers Marco Beasley and Sverrier Gudjonsson and the mandolin player Cleofe Miotti. More recently, she has begun performing in duo with the soprano Silvia Testoni and with the flutist Andrea Aldini.

She has recorded for the labels Dynamic, Stradivarius, Mondo Musica and Nuova Era, with the ensembles Sans souci, Cappella Palatina, Accademia Farnese and the chamber orchestra Offerta Musicale of Venice.

She has also recorded for the Italian radio (RAI Radiotre) and for other radio and television networks throughout Europe. She has provided the music for various theatrical productions including La caduta di casa Usher by Edgar Allan Poe and L’Orlando innamorato by Matteo Maria Boiardo, and has appeared as a lutenist on television programs for RAI 2, Channel 4, and others.

For over a decade she has performed in concert and on disc (for the label Tactus) as theorbist with the ensemble Cappella Artemisia, participating in numerous European festivals (the Festival Monteverdi of Cremona, in Bern, for the Concerti del Quirinale in Rome, in Bonn, at the Segni Barocchi in Foligno, for the festival Frauen in der Musik in Herne, in Lugano, and elsewhere).
She has also made two solo recordings (on Tactus) of music by two important Italian 17th-century composers for the lute: Alessandro Piccinini and Pietro Paolo Melli.
She has edited publications of music for theorbo (for SPES), and written articles on certain Italian composers for lute for various musical periodicals.
She has taught lute at the conservatories of Bari and Vicenza and has held seminars and master classes at numerous musical institutions.

She is the founder and director of the ensemble Scintille di musica with whom she has recorded a CD for the “Futuro antico” series (on EMI Classic): Mantova, la musica alla corte dei Gonzaga, featuring the voice of Angelo Branduardi.

She is currently professor of lute at the “Verdi” Conservatory in Milan (www.consmilano.it)

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