« To hear María Cristina Kiehr sing pre-Baroque Italian music is to plunge, through the magic of her timbre and the eloquence of her phrasing, into a universe where the splendor of the texts is sublimated by an expressive art of declamation. » 

24 Hours

Trained at the Schola Cantorum in Basel with René Jacobs, María Cristina Kiehr was very early invited by the greatest chefs (Philippe Herreweghe, Franz Bruggen, Jordi Savall, Gustav Leonhardt, Nikolaus Harnoncourt...) and the most prestigious formations (Hesperion XXI, Concerto Köln, Ensemble 415, Séminaire Musicale, Vocal Concerto, Elyma, ...). Apart from her participation in opera productions (Orontea by Cesti in Basel, Incoronazione di Poppea by Monteverdi in Montpellier, Dorilla by Vivaldi in Nice...), she travels around the world (in Europe, Japan, Australia, Central and South America...) and has participated in more than a hundred recordings.

But her double passion for polyphony and 17th century Italian monody blossomed fully with Concerto Soave, of which she was co-founder. María Cristina Kiehr reveals her talents as a storyteller, focusing on rendering the slightest intentions of the monodic "new music" (la nuova musica). This one bears witness to a prosperous period when the greatest poets (Tasso, Marino, Petrarch...) were set to music by the greatest composers (Monteverdi, d'India, Mazzochi...) and where sacred music addressed the senses and the heart with the same rhetoric as secular music.

She allows us to discover not only a unique singer, but also an accomplished artist.

Photo credit : Marie-Ève Brouet

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.

Website : http://maragalassi.org/