Francesca Torelli’s artistic activity focuses on performances on instruments of the lute family (Renaissance lute, Theorbo, Archlute, Baroque lute, Baroque guitar), singing on the lute, and conducting ensembles with Renaissance and Baroque repertoire.

As a soloist, she has participated in numerous festivals in Europe, Australia, and South America. She has recorded for RAI Radio Tre, WDR, and other European radio stations, and has appeared as a lutenist on television programs for RAI 2, Channel 4, and others.

For Brilliant, she recorded as a soloist the CD with music by Alessandro Piccinini, Intavolature di liuto e chitarrone. She has released the solo albums: Musique pour le Roy-Soleil: Robert de Visée works for theorbo; Italian Baroque Music for Archlute; Le Dialogue, Charles Mouton Lute suites, which have received considerable praise from the press. In 2022 she released the CD Renaissance Fantasias for Da Vinci Classics, which received five stars from Amadeus and Musica magazines.

In 2025 she published the solo album Les sentiments- French Baroque Masterworks for Da Vinci classics.

As a continuo player, Francesca Torelli has recorded for Tactus, Stradivarius, Dynamic, Nuova Era, and Mondo Musica, with the ensembles Cappella Artemisia, Cappella Palatina, Sans Souci, Offerta Musicale, and Accademia Farnese. During his concert career, she has also collaborated as a lutenist and guitarist with the Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Il Ruggiero, Accademia degli Astrusi, the ensemble Vivaldi dei Solisti Veneti, Capella Regiensis. She has performed on the lute for various theatrical productions and videos for art exhibitions in duos with actors including Catherine Spaak and Neri Marcorè.

She is a great lover of voice-lute duos: among the many singers she has accompanied over the years, she particularly enjoys mentioning Marco Beasley, Sverrier Gudjonsson, Monica Piccinini, and Lia Serafini.

With soprano Micol Pisanu, she forms the duo Cor Barocco, which, in addition to performing concerts, recently released the album Barbara Strozzi – Scherzi e lacrime for Da Vinci Classics, dedicated to the vocal works of the great 17th-century composer.

She has written numerous articles on early plucked strings instruments and their repertoire, published by various music magazines. In 2006, she published the Ut Orpheus “A Tutor for the Theorbo”, the first manual for this instrument, used worldwide.

She is the founder and director of the ensemble Scintille di Musica, with which she has recorded seven CDs for EMI Classic and Lungomare/Universal in the Futuro Antico series with singer-songwriter Angelo Branduardi. The albums focus on Italian Renaissance repertoire, both classical and popular: Mantua, Music at the Court of the Gonzagas; Venice and the Carnival; Venice: Music of the Serenissima; Rome and the Feast of St. John; The Roman Carnival; Music at the Court of the Prince-Bishops; Ferrara: Music at the Court of the Este Family. With these programs, she has brought early music to concerts not only in theaters and concert halls (Teatro Bibiena in Mantua, Auditorium Santa Chiara in Trento, Teatro Claudio Abbado in Ferrara), but also to a wider audience on the stages of major Italian squares (Piazza di San Giovanni in Rome, Piazza Duomo in Spilimbergo, Piazza del Popolo in Rome). She has conducted the Andromeda Ensemble of the Milan Conservatory in Italian premieres of baroque oratorios (Girolamo Kapsberger, Camilla de Rossi, Alessandro Della Ciaia), operas (Purcell), and various vocal and instrumental concert productions. She serves on the juries of international competitions dedicated to early music and plucked string instruments. She is a member of the board of directors of the Lute Society of America. Francesca also plays contemporary music on the lute:  composers Marcela Pavia, Ivan Fowler, and Alberto Vina have written pieces for lute and theorbo for her.

Born in Reggio Emilia, Francesca graduated with honors in lute from the Verona Conservatory and then furthered her studies in basso continuo with Nigel North at the Guildhall School in London. She also studied Renaissance and Baroque singing with Auriol Kimber in London and Music Studies at the University of Bologna.

As a lute-accompanying singer, she has released a solo CD with music by Pietro Paolo and Domenico Maria Melli for Tactus, the album John Dowland: Lute Songs, Lute Music, and performed hundreds of concerts across Europe.

She has held summer instrumental masterclasses (San Marino, Bertinoro, Trevi), master classes and lectures at universities in Italy and abroad, including the Escuela Universitaria de Musica de Montevideo (Uruguay), the Schola Cantorum de Basel (Switzerland), the Shanghai Conservatory (China), the Escuela Municipal de Musica de Rosario (Argentina), and the Universities of Perth and Darwin (Australia). She taught lute at the Conservatories of Bari and Vicenza; since 2001 she has held the chair of lute at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan.