Mara Galassi and Flora Papadopoulos
Biography Mara Galassi and Flora Papadopoulos
Mara Galassi
studied pedal harp with Luciana Chierici in Milano, David Watkins in London, and Emmy Huerlimann in Zuerich, performance practice with the harpsichordist David Collyer and the lutenist Patrick O’Brien and musicology with Michael Morrow in London.
She served as principal harpist for the Opera House in Genova, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, and from 1979 to 1989 for the Teatro Massimo Opera House in Palermo, Italy. She develops her activities as soloist and as a member of the most famous early music Ensembles in Europe:Concerto Vocale (René Jacobs), Concerto Italiano (Rinaldo Alessandrini), Mala Punica (Pedro Memeldorff), Concerto Soave (Maria Cristina Kiher, Jean Marc Aymes), Concerto Koeln, Akademie fuer Alte Muik, Freiburger Barockorchester, etc.
As musicologist she has done extensive research in the field of historical harps. She recorded for Tactus, Symphonia, Ricordi, Harmonia Mundi, Opus 111, Glossa and Arcana, Zig Zag. For Glossa Music : Il viaggio di Lucrezia (Choc de la Musique/Cannes Award), Les harpes du Ciel, A Microcosm Concerto.
In Duo with the dancer, actress and regisseur Deda Cristina Colonna she participated in the film “Voluptas dolendi- I gesti del Caravaggio” produced by the Marco Fodella Foundation.
She has recently founded the “Ensemble de harpes Sebastièn Erard”, devoted to romantic music for harp ensemble on original instruments.
She teaches historical harps and chamber music in Milano at the Civica Scuola di Musica and at the ESMUC in Barcelona and has given performance practice masterclasses in Lausanne Conservatory of Music, Lyon Conservatory of Music, Moscow Conservatory of Music etc.
Flora Papadopoulos
Born in Greece, Flora Papadopoulos has lived in Italy for many years, currently in Milan.
She graduated in modern harp at the Conservatory of Parma with Emanuela Degli Esposti. Later, thanks to a scholarship from the Fondazione Marco Fodella, she studied the baroque harp at the Scuola Civica di Milano and under the guidance of Mara Galassi, graduating with top marks.
She graduated with honours in Conservation of Cultural Heritage at the University of Parma and obtained a Master's degree in Musicology at the Sorbonne IV University in Paris.
Her concert activity includes both solo and chamber music and orchestral projects.
He collaborates with European orchestras and ensembles specialising in the interpretation of early music, and has worked among others with maestros such as R. Alessandrini (Concerto Italiano), J. Ch. Spinosi (Ensemble Matheus), L. Garcia Alarcòn (Cappella Mediterranea), D. Fasolis (I Barocchisti), F. Cera (Ensemble Arte musica), F. Guglielmo (l'Arte dell'arco), Ch. Pluhar (L'Arpeggiata), A. De Marchi, Th. Hengelbrock, M. Mencoboni, C. Ipata (Auser Musici), A. Van der Spoel (Musica Temprana), A. Küppers (Il Teatro del Mondo), A. Urbano (l'Armonia degli Affetti), and many others.
He has performed in some of the world's most prestigious halls, including Carnegie Hall in New York, L'Opèra Garnier in Paris (Coronation of Poppea, with Rinaldo Alessandrini, Concerto Italiano and directed by Bob Wilson), Opéra de Versailles, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, Cité de la Musique in Paris, Theatre an der Wien in Vienna, Wien Konzerthaus, Megaron in Athens, Beijing Center of the Performing Arts, and many others. He has participated in recordings for Brilliant Classics, Harmonia Mundi, MDG, Glossa, Ricercar.
With Lathika Vithanage and Noelia Reverte Reche he founded the ensemble specialising in Italian and English seventeenth-century repertoire, with which she recorded a disc around the Harp Consorts of William Lawes (Brilliant Classics 2016).
He is a member of the ensemble founded and directed by Franco Pavan and with Pino de Vittorio, committed to rediscovering the ancient musical tradition of written and oral tradition of southern Italy. With them he recorded the album 'Occhi Turchini, songs of an island' for Glossa.
Recently released for Arcana is his first solo harp disc Unwritten: Bach, Biber, Corelli, Marini, from violin to harp.
She teaches the Renaissance and Baroque Harp course at the Conservatory of Music in Latina
