Biography

Biografia in italiano >>>

Described by music critics as an artist of exceptional musicality and talent, Floraleda Sacchi is one of the few harpists in the world who appeared as soloist in major concert halls of the 4 continents. She is today considered as one of the most interesting and original harpist in the international concert panorama. Critics consider her also a real innovator in the approach to her instrument.

Her celebrated CDs are already part of the musical history of the harp and became a cult. As a matter of fact Floraleda is the only harpist who recorded for the four major music companies (Decca, Universal, Philips and Deutsche Grammophon).

Among her Decca recordings stand out: 'Minimal Harp' (a project for solo harp defined as 'fascinating' by several journals, that created a new repertoire for the instrument); 'Harp Dances' (''The best harp playing I've ever heard'' American Records Guide) and 'Harp Favorites' (a collection of great Baroque classics for harp and loop station).

In 2011 a track of Harp Favorites was included in the album "Classica 2011" by Deutsche Grammophon beside the famous names of classical music (Abbado, Barenboim, Lang Lang...).

For Floraleda and her instrument important composers have written music (Machajdik, Claudia Montero, Philip Glass, Nyman ...). From these collaborations the original "Portraits' Collection" (www.portraitscollection.com) was born. This CD series is published by Amadeus Arte.

Floraleda performed as soloist all over the world in major halls and festivals Carnegie Hall-Weill Recital Hall (New York), United Nations Palace (New York), Gewandhaus (Leipzig), Konzerthaus (Belin), Auditorium Binyanei Hauma (Jerusalem), Teatro Bibiena (Mantova), Sala Verdi (Milan), Teatro Valle (Rome), Matsuo Hall (Tokyo), Prefectural Hall Alti (Kyoto), Salle Varèse (Lyon), Gasteig (Munich), Concerts de la Croix Rouge (Geneva), Theatre Bellevue (Amsterdam), Gessler Hall (Vancouver), CBC-Glenn Gould Studio (Toronto), Emilia Romagna Festival, Festival Pontino, Festival Musica no Museo (Rio de Janeiro), Rosegart Stiftung (Lucerne), etc.

Floraleda appeared as soloist with several orchestras in Europe and America with the great classics of the repertoire (Mozart, Boieldieu, Debussy...) and with rarely performed concertos (Pizzetti, Hahn...). She appeared as soloist with the Italian TV Christmas' Concert broadcasted worldwide and followed by some million people.

Floraleda Sacchi has been guested and her CD are regularly broadcasted on major radios and television (RAI, Mediaset, RSI, ORF, Dutch Radio, BBC, Radio France, ABC, Avro).

She often collaborates with actors in theatre shows. She created shows as "Journey to the Moon" produced by the Milan Planetarium, and the soundtrack of "Winged Words" (released on DVD by the University of Milan and directed by Lamberto Puggelli).
She recently composed the music she performs live with Ottavia Piccolo in the monologue "Donna non rieducabile" directed by Silvano Piccardi. The show - which has received numerous awards and had more than 100 performances from the European Parliament in Brussels to the main Italian theaters - was transformed by RAI 2 into a movie with the title "The blood, the snow" (directed by Felice Cappa). In addition to the national broadcasting, the movie was presented at the 66th Venice Film Festival and published in DVD by PromoMusic.

Floraleda's long list of national and international honors includes, from 1997 to 2003, top prizes at 16 international competitions, including: Concours UFAM (Paris), Gioventu' Musicale Italiana, Rovere d'oro, T.I.M. (Rome), Concorso F. Schubert, Toronto Concerto Competition (Canada), Premio Galbiati (Milan).

Since 2006 she is the artistic director of LakeComo Festival, a series of chamber music concerts held in the historical villas of Lake Como, Italy.

She regularly gives masterclasses in Europe, the United States and Canada (Westminister College - Salt Lake City, Oklahoma University, European Academy of Music, British Columbia University - Vancouver, New York University, Masterclass of Cervo, Conservatorio di Parma, Masterclass of Camerino, etc.)

Parallel to music she has studied English, French and German and dedicated herself to photography and writing. In the musicological field, when she was 21 years old, she won the Harpa Award (Prague, 1999) for her book on Elias Parish Alvars (1999, Odilia Publishing, 220 pages). She is still considered the world expert of this author. She has written several articles appeared on major specialist journals (American Harp Journal, Harpa, World Harp Congress Review), and she has managed dozens of music editions for Ut Orpheus.

Floraleda was born in Como, as a child she dedicated herself to dance. Inspired to play the harp by Annie Challan recordings, she started studying with Lisetta Rossi when she was 14 at Como Conservatoire. She later studied with Alice Giles (Frankfurt), Alice Chalifoux (Salzedo School, Camden, ME, USA) and with Judy Loman (Toronto, Canada).

Reviews

Floraleda Sacchi bewitches the soul.
Irene Krieger, Markische Allgemeine Zeitung

It was interesting to listen to Floraleda Sacchi, soloist with a symphonic orchestra in a piece [Pizzetti's Harp Concerto] that exploits all her lyrical qualities and her impressive powerful sound.
Nordkurier

Floraleda Sacchi is an accomplished harpist with a dynamic personality. She is energic, intelligent, enthusiastic and original. I am confident that these qualities contribute greatly to her success.

Judith Liber, artistic director International Harp Contest, Israel

The harp and contemporary music: a relation by any means marginal, as demonstrated by the harpist Floraleda Sacchi who performs this repertoire with powerful sound and effective technique.
Luca Pavanel, Il Giornale

The young Italian harpist Floraleda Sacchi revealed a harp virtuoso. She seduced the audience with her clear and brilliant performance, which embraced three centuries of repertoire.
Johann Vollmar, Oberbadisches Volksblatt

The concert [at Carnegie Hall - Weill Recital Hall] was nearly a musical ecstasy.
A. Ciappino, America Oggi

Ms. Sacchi's outstanding quality is her mature and intelligent musicality, a rare and valuable asset on the harp. She has a beautiful tone, a compelling stage presence and a sure technique in the service of the music.
Alice Giles, Camberra School of Music (Australian National University)

Floraleda Sacchi has technical qualities and interpretation depth. The main traits of her mastery are her fast and sure fingers and her sound always full and round.
Bernardo Pieri, Il Resto del Carlino

Floraleda Sacchi created impressive sonorities; the technical aspects were excellent as well as the sound floating from ethereal athmospheres to full and powerful effects. The audience was enthusiast.

D.M., Il Giorno

I enjoyed working with Floraleda Sacchi on several occasions. She is an intelligent and well rounded musician. An excellent harpist, her musical and technical capabilities are at a high level and she plays with artistry and commitment.
Judy Loman (Curtis Institute, Philadelphia, USA)

Floraleda Sacchi performed performed beautifully a really virtuoso program.
A.C., La Provincia

Floraleda Sacchi has an excellent facility.

Alice Chalifoux, harp professor and director at the Salzedo School (Camden, Maine, USA)

"Ottavia Piccolo dà carne e voce ad Anna Politkovskaja con un monologo dagli scritti della giornalista cecena, accompagnato dall'arpa poco rassicurante di Floraleda Sacchi, che, come secondo personaggio dello spettacolo, dà origine a un vero e proprio dialogo con la "narratrice". [...] Il lavoro della musicista Floraleda Sacchi riesce a produrre suoni striduli e disturbanti con uno strumento ampolloso come l'arpa. Un effetto doppiamente straniante, come le sviolinate lancinanti che Hitchock aveva voluto per Psyco"

Giampiero Raganelli, Teatro Teatro

"Ma la sorpresa inaspettata arriva grazie alle musiche di scena: scritte e suonate da Floraleda Sacchi. Sorpresa per lo strumento su cui vengono eseguite: l'arpa, usata non solo nelle consuete sonorità romantiche, ma in una gamma amplissima di possibilità. Sorpresa anche per la spinta drammaturgica che la musica di scena imprime allo spettacolo. Abituati come siamo a musiche di scena che servono solo a coprire un buco o un cambio di scenografia – e che spesso hanno il quoziente di intelligenza musicale di uno "stacchetto" pubblicitario della televisione – ci troviamo qui felicemente spiazzati dall'unione stretta, dal ritmo con cui parola e suono si intrecciano, come in un melologo"

Paolo Furlani

"Con Ottavia Piccolo, Floraleda Sacchi all'arpa, che ha dato la sensazione di essere una raffica di mitra, il gocciolare del sangue, l'ansimare di una persona"

Anna de Marzo, Puglia Live

CD Reviews

Sacchi delivers the best harp playing I've ever heard. (Harp Dances)
American Records Guide, Sept.-Oct. 2010 (Gil French)

Among the original pieces, some in the premiere recording or first version for harp, Mrs Sacchi invents a fascinating chapter of modern history of the harp. [Minimal Harp]
Angelo Foletto, Suonare and Repubblica

The art of Floraleda, great virtuoso, transforms even the verbose in magical hypnosis. The homogeneity of touch is interwoven with the variety of styles. Congratulations also to the text: is rare to find such a clear and useful booklet.
Gian Maria Benzing, ViviMilano and Corriere della Sera

Sacchi is a first-class player, with excellent technique and a wide range of dynamics.
Lynn Bailey, Fanfare

The search for essentiality pushed Floraleda Sacchi to record Minimal Harp: A collection of pieces to dream in a CD that will appeal all lovers of cross-over.
Giorgio Vitali, Famiglia Cristiana

Minimal Harp gives a physical pleasure before still the intellectual one (but... are the two aspects separate?), and it demonstrates how much is still immense and inexhaustible the space offered to originality and to the free and authentic research. You are a great artist.
Quirino Principe, Accademico di Santa Cecilia

This refined repertoire is now presented by talented harpist Floraleda Sacchi. For the occasion she used a period instrument sounding full and bright: the Sonatas are well delineated with total convincing style, with appreciable domain of technical difficulties and with measured sensitivity. Excellent recording quality. [Sophi Giustina Corri: Works for Solo Harp]
Claudio Bolzan, Musica

[In Minimal Harp] Sacchi has a convincing way with these varied works, giving each their due in terms of tonal color and rhythmic emphasis, while suggesting implicit similarities. This is a seductive, rather than flamboyant, recital that offers surprising, albeit subtle, rewards to the open-minded listener.
Art Lange, Fanfare

It almost seems that Floraleda Sacchi and her harp are all one, such is the ability of the interpreter of suggesting to the audience the desire to express the music not only with intellect but also with the body. (Harp Dances)
Andrea Bedetti, Supereva

Floraleda Sacchi is an outstanding proponent of this composer. Her affection for the music is obvious, and her command of its challenges is formidable.
Steven E. Ritter, Fanfare

I think Sacchi is a fine performer who is justly celebrated for her accomplishments, and I hope she will record more original harp music.
Rob Haskins, American Records Guide

Minimal Harp is absolutely wonderful!!
Marvin Rosen, Classical Discoveries

The way Floraleda performs Philip Glass goes beyond the wonder. The piece that Nicola Campogrande has composed for her is brilliant. [In Minimal Harp] there are American, Slovak, Nordic and Italian omposers, Oriental inspirations and Western experiments, pieces of 1912 and unknown ones recently composed. Nevertheless, at the end, the impression that the CD communicates is not the usual boring and chaotic multiethnical melting pot. The project is perfectly harmonized and far away from every known thing, nearly an encounter with Flora, a creature of another dimension who has stolen all the music of the world to play it in a new way and with her curiosity and ability.
Tommaso Labranca, Acid Jazz

Floraleda Sacchi uses the sound as a continuous search for a transmission of concepts and emotions. This creates a sound dimension where her harp becomes a beautiful mind-bending machine, with a beating heart that gives warmth and passion.
Andrea Bedetti, Linea

Minimal Harp presents compositions which caress the ear and, at the same time, are technically demanding and with complex means that Floraleda succeeds perfectly to express and to transmit. Her great bravura is in making to seem easy what instead it is intensely complex.
C.P., Il Corriere

Some of Minimal Harp performances sound more representative than ever - I'm pretty sure fans of Glass, Cage and Paert will be stunned by these renditions.
Tokafi Magazine

It is one of the best known harpist in the world, thanks to her bravura. Recenty she realized Minimal Harp, distributed all over the world from Decca, a truly beautiful and fascinating CD.
Alessio Brunialti, La Provincia

The new CD of Italian harpist Floraleda Sacchi for Decca label is a fascinating program all dedicated to 20th century and contemporary repertoire.
Gabriele Formenti, CD Classico

Minimal Harp is a harp alone project, shining and clear and a collection of music which is a dream of minimalism.
Gloria Chiappani Rodichevski, Morfoedro

Rachmaninoff springs to mind as a composer who was equally accomplished as a performer. It makes no sense comparing his work to that of Floraleda Sacchi, of course. But the mere fact that the CD Chiaroscuro has ended up more than just a dignified composing exercise certainly does not make it seem entirely out of place either.

Tobias Fisher on Tokafi.com

In her interpretation, the talented harpist from Como, shows an emotion in her playing which has the merit to keep alive the listener's attention, involving him with her passion and delicacy.
Andrea Bedetti, Linea

With Suite en Duo one thinks there are still CDs worth to buy, even just for the expressive use of harp and flute. Just after the first listening one realizes both instruments are played by expert performers. Two musicians who think before playing.
Giumart for Caffe' Letterario

I try to express my feelings after the first listening of your recording of Krumpholtz's Sonatas in a single phrase: the effect of your playing is magical. Your art is able to transport the listener in a higher state of mind and emotion.
Quirino Principe, Accademico di Santa Cecilia