Our unusual duo daringly unite the sound of two very different instruments, highlighting their harmony and complicity. We started working together after meeting through different orchestras (Orchestre de Chambre of Geneva and Orchestre de la Suisse Romande), we took up the challenge of mixing and enhancing the soft and powerful sounds of our instruments. The lack of an original repertoire encouraged us to create new arrangements and construct an identity of our own. Our current program, titled Sueño el Sur offers some pieces by Piazzolla, Ginastera, Crespo, Villa Lobos, and Marquez. It thus combines tango rhythms, Brazilian folk songs, and classical pieces by the greatest South American composers, all revisited by an original duo!
Carlotta began studying the harp at the age of nine at the Como Conservatory in Italy. At the age of 20, she graduated at the Conservatory of Castelfranco Veneto. She followed the courses for orchestral musicians from the RAI National Symphony Orchestra and the Accademia Teatro alla Scala in Milan. She continued her studies at the Haute École de musique de Genève in Ms. Eisenhofer’s class and obtained the Diploma of Orchestra Musician in 2006. She plays regularly at the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande (OSR) during symphonic productions, in Switzerland and abroad (BBC London Proms in 2018, toured in China, South Korea and Japan in 2019), as well as with the Geneva Chamber Orchestra (OCG). She has also collaborated with the Sinfonieorchester Basel and the Marinsky Theatre Orchestra under the direction of maestro Valery Gergiev. She is also active in chamber music; she has performed with various ensembles such as the ensemble d-Cadences (composed of OSR soloists) and forms the Arpa Diva Duo with soprano Marie-Camille Vaquié-Depraz. On the discography side, she recorded with flutist Adriana Ferreira (Winner of the Geneva Competition 2015) with OCG soloists and participated in several recordings within the OSR. She can also be found on Francesco D’Urso’s “Paradise Bone” record.
A graduate of several conservatories in Switzerland, Germany and Italy, Francesco won second prize at the Aosta International Trombone Competition in 2008 and was awarded the István Kertész Scholarship in 2015. Francesco D’Urso teaches trombone at the Geneva Conservatory of Music for the MusicEnsemble project (coordinated by maestro Domingo Hindoyan and sponsored by maestro Gustavo Dudamel) and at the Multisite School of Music (Canton of Vaud, Switzerland). Since 2006, he has been collaborating with the Orchestre Sinfonietta de Lausanne and from 2011 has regularly played as first and second trombone with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. He currently holds the role of principal trombone with the Geneva Chamber Orchestra under the artistic direction of maestro Raphaël Merlin. In collaboration with Difem Music Publisher he produced two albums, Stella in 2015 and Paradise Bone in 2021. He is also the founder of the ensemble Moya Trombones. Francesco D’Urso is a Vincent Bach artist and ambassador for the René Hagmann® systems, dedicated to trombone cylinders and developed by Servette-Music in Geneva.
