Raised in Milan in a family of classical musicians, at the age of five she expressed the desire to become a musician. At six she was already singing as a soloist in the Choir of the Roman Philharmonic Orchestra, and from the age of eight she listened to the greatest classical performers at Teatro alla Scala, as her father Luciano, a renowned composer, became its artistic director in 1968.
At ten she began studying harp at the Milan Conservatory and later refined her skills with Mimma Oliva De Poli, principal harpist of La Scala, who invited her to substitute for her in Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker, performed by Rudolf Nureyev, when she was only nineteen years old. She also attended advanced harp courses with Jacqueline Borot, Pierre Jamet, and at the Geneva Conservatory.
During the 1980s and 1990s, amid experimentation and political-cultural ferment in Milan, she studied composition with Azio Corghi and participated in the production of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, directed by Giorgio Strehler at the Piccolo Teatro, staged for months at the Teatro Lirico in Milan and at the Teatro della Pergola in Florence.
She became part of the Neo-Romantic movement and performed and recorded for Sugar Music works dedicated to her by composers such as Marco Tutino, Carlo Galante, Luca Mosca, Giampaolo Testoni, and Alessandro Lucchetti.
She made her debut at Tangram with a jazz repertoire and embarked on an intense concert career as a classical harpist, performing with various orchestras and appearing as a soloist in many of the major Italian and European theatres and festivals, including La Milanesiana, Musica dei Cieli, Villa Arconati, Suoni delle Dolomiti, Blue Note Milano, the Gaudeamus Festival in the Netherlands, the Piccola Scala, and Queen Elizabeth Hall in London.
She has collaborated with artists including Andrea Bocelli, Mina, Lucio Dalla, Fabrizio De André, Cristiano De André, Planet Funk, Le Vibrazioni, Morgan, Alex Britti, Giorgio Conte, John Cage, Hector Zazou, Wendy Sutter, and Gyan Riley. A pioneer of the electric harp, using the first Salvi prototype she recorded the album Stanze (1992) for Ricordi, performing original compositions dedicated to her by Ludovico Einaudi for Decca. The album became an international cult classic in contemporary classical music.
In 1995 she debuted as a composer with her first album Anima (CGD-Warner), recorded in California with David Darling and Mike Marshall, which earned her the Vittorio De Sica Award for music. She later released four more albums of her own compositions with EMI, Sony, and Sony Classical, presenting them in various Rai television programs including Fuori Orario, alongside Gianni Morandi, on MTV, and on the Maurizio Costanzo Show.
Versatile and cross-disciplinary across musical genres and creative worlds, after becoming the protagonist of the successful novel Arcodamore by Andrea De Carlo, in 1998 she published her first novel, Era dell’amore, with Bompiani. The book won several literary awards for debut works, including the Elsa Morante, Rapallo, and Rejum Julii prizes.
She has also served as a testimonial for fashion designers such as Missoni, Alviero Martini, Krizia, Costume National, and Etro, as well as for Krug Champagne. Among the photographers who portrayed her are Oliviero Toscani, Raoul Iacometti, Giovanni Gastel, Angela Lo Priore, Agnes Spaak, Armando Rotoletti, Eddy Guelfenbein, Alfredo Sabbatini, Marco Mantovani, and Laura
Camia.
She taught at the Civic School of Music in Milan and wrote the column “Music and States of Mind” for the magazine Donna Moderna. A seeker of the spirit and an existentialist, she has always combined her artistic career with the study of Eastern and spiritual disciplines. Passionate about travel, she has explored worlds and cultures, temples and deserts that inspired and transformed her.
A lover of objects from the past and a guardian of memory, after creating the archive of her father Luciano and restoring his home in Trentino, she is currently completing a new novel inspired by family memories.
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