Nazca Duo

Performers

Notes on the performers

Nazca Duo is a unique chamber ensemble formed by Lucia Foti (harp) and Stefano Fiacco (guitar). Originally from Italy, they completed their postgraduate studies in 2022, both graduating with Distinction from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, which they represented in several occasions as highlights of the plucked strings department.

Nazca Duo performed in a number of famous venues across London (including Wigmore Hall and the Queen’s House) and Northern Italy. In recognition of their chamber music achievements, they have been awarded the Colin Blythe Fund in 2022 and 2023, and first prize in the 2023 Luigi Cerritelli International Music Competition. Lucia and Stefano are closely working with composers to expand the repertoire for this unconventional instrumental combination.

Lucia is an award-winning harpist, with experience as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player. She regularly performs with the Young Musicians’ Symphony Orchestra and collaborated with Aalborg Opera Festival, Denmark, in 2023.

Stefano performed with different orchestras as a soloist and was awarded several prizes in national and international competitions. He also played as a lutenist and cellist in different baroque ensembles. He revised the new editions of Leo Brouwer’s El Decamerón Negro published by Ediciones Espiral Eterna.

The name of the ensemble comes from Erik Marchelie’s piece Nazca, inspired by the Nazca Lines, Peru, a desert area characterised by a group of mysterious, inexplicable shapes which can only be seen from the sky. This image well represents the enigmatic yet distinctive character of Nazca Duo.

Programme

Programme notes

Alexandre Tansman

Suite in modo polonico

1. Entrée
2. Rêverie
3. Alla polacca

Alexander Tansman (1897 – 1986) was a Polish composer, pianist and conductor who became a naturalized French citizen in 1938. One of the earliest representatives of neoclassicism, associated with École de Paris, Tansman was a globally recognized and celebrated composer.

Source: Wikipedia

Érik Marchelie

Nazca

Guitarist and composer, Erik Marchelie was born in 1957 in Périgueux in the southwest of France. After his beginnings in his hometown, he continued musical studies at the conservatories of Tours and Versailles, then joined Alexandre Lagoya ‘s guitar class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris in 1978. Author of numerous compositions for the guitar which he frequently combines with other instruments, he also composes pieces for other chamber music groups or orchestras.

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco

Fantasia

1. Andantino

Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895 – 1968) was an Italian composer, pianist and writer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In 1939 he immigrated to the United States and became a film composer for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for some 200 Hollywood movies for the next fifteen years

Source: Wikipedia

Anthony Sidney

Sonata for Harp and Guitar

1. The Glass Vase with Butterflies
2. A Portrait of Parsifal
3. Chalice of Mystery
4. Light Dark Light
5. Returning to the Future’s Past

Sonata for Harp and Guitar is influenced by French artists Odilon Redon and Emile Galle as well as the city of Paris. Throughout the score are descriptive phrases such as “candlelight on a glass vase, shadows of leaves dance on the walls, beauty in the darkness of night. Anthony Sidney draws inspiration for all his music from every aspect of the arts; painting, poetry, architecture, music, and life.

Source: veroharp.com

Érik Marchelie

La font dels ocells

This is the second piece by Erik performed today. Ocells are birds in Catalan. The font (well) dels ocells is in the foothills of the Pyrenees.

Dušan Bogdanović

Metamorphoses

1. Allegro molto ritmico

Dušan Bogdanović (born 1955) is a Serbian-born American composer and classical guitarist. Metamorphoses was written in 1993.

Source: Wikipedia

Máximo Diego Pujol

Suite Mágica

1. Preludio
2. Vals
3. Tango
4. Candombe

Máximo Diego Pujol is an Argentine classical music guitarist and composer born in Buenos Aires in December 1957. He studied at the Juan José Castro Provincial Conservatory. Pujol carried out his instrumental studies with Alfredo Vicente Gascón, Horacio Ceballos, Abel Carlevaro and Miguel Ángel Girollet. He also studied harmony and composition under the guidance of Leónidas Arnedo and participated in master classes and seminars led by Antonio de Raco, Abel Carlevaro, and Leo Brouwer. Pujol has been awarded numerous prizes in national and international competitions. As a composer, he works from classical music and the musical genres of his native Argentina, especially those from the Río de la Plata area.

Source: Wikipedia