Biography

BIOGRAPHY

MY STORY

Felicita Brusoni, born in 1986 in Sarzana, La Spezia, Italy began her journey into music by taking piano lessons at the age of 7. Then, when 14 years old, she started to take singing lessons, both in Italy and in France.

She studied opera singing at the Regia Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna (Italy) under Sergio Bertocchi while doing an undergraduate course at the University of Bologna. Here she obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in DAMS – Disciplines of Arts, Music and Performative Arts, in 2010. Then, she earned a Bachelor’s Degree (2014) in Singing, and a first-class Master Degree (2017) in Vocal Chamber Music (focused on Lieder and contemporary music repertoire) from the “Giacomo Puccini” Music Conservatory in La Spezia (Italy). In the same Conservatory in 2010 she began to study the French horn under Danilo Marchello.

She is now honing in contemporary singing with Nicholas Isherwood and Alda Caiello.
Starting from autumn 2020 she is employed as PhD researcher in Music with specialization in voice at Malmö Academy of Music, University of Lund (Sweden) carrying on a research practice-based project about extended vocal techniques.

Her main area of interest is contemporary music, for solo voice, voice and electronics, duo with piano or other instruments, or voice ensemble. Her repertoire includes pieces by Andriessen, Aperghis, Berio, Bussotti, Cage, Castiglioni, Crumb, Curran, Edgerton, Globokar, Kagel, Kurtág, Lachenmann, Ligeti, Rihm, Saariaho, Scelsi, Sciarrino, Stockhausen.

Through collaborations with composers and attending different labs focused on contemporary music (like the LabMusCont based in La Spezia or SMNMP – San Marino New Music Project based in San Marino, where she worked with Nicholas Isherwood), she started to explore the melting of different languages, incorporating various components in her performances, from visual arts to electronics. Over the last years, she started to work with sound, video, graphic novels and visual artists.

Besides national and international performances and concerts, opera theatres hirings and contemporary music festivals, she has sung several premieres of contemporary music. She premiered pieces by Gilberto Agostinho, Luisa Antoni, Michel Barros-Bessone, Matteo Bogazzi, Angelo Bruzzese, Maria Vincenza Cabizza, Alvin Curran, Gerardo De Pasquale, Giovanna Dongu, Jacob Elkin, Federico Favali, Miguel Angel Frausto, Carlo Galante, Matteo Giuliani, Marco Lenzi, Damiano Mainenti, Luigi Morleo, Andrea Nicoli, Ketevan Scheipner, Jacopo Simoncini, Rossella Spinosa, Andrea Talmelli, Riccardo Vaglini, Massimiliano Viel.

She has worked together with composers such as Luisa Antoni, Pasquale Corrado, Alvin Curran, Gerardo De Pasquale, Michael Edward Edgerton, Federico Favali, Vinko Globokar, Andrea Nicoli, Ketevan Scheipner.

Felicita performs solo, in duo with pianist Matteo Bogazzi (“Helmut Duo”) and in ensembles. Concerts led her to festivals all over Italy and Europe: Biennale di Venezia (Italy), International Stockhausen-Summerclasses (Kürten, Germany), Musica Futura (L’Aquila, Italy), Suoni Inauditi (Livorno, Italy), New Music Project (San Marino), Contrasti MotoContrario (Trento, Italy), Rondò by Divertimento Ensemble (Milano, Italy), New Made Week (Rovigo, Italy).

She also performed musical theatre pieces, due to her stage skills (Histoire du Soldat by Stravinskij, Façade by Walton, Chansons de Bilits by Debussy, Platero y Yo by Castelnuovo Tedesco).

In 2018 she won the “Best Singer” Prize at San Marino New Music Project for her performance of the piece for solo voice Jenseits der Sicherheit by Vinko Globokar. According to the composer, this was the best performance ever of the piece.
In 2019 she won, in duo with Victor Andrini (bass), the “Special Jury” Prize for the performance of Indianerlieder by Karlheinz Stockhausen at “Note tra i calanchi” Festival in Bagnoregio, Italy.

As well as contemporary music repertoire, Felicita worked with professional singers and ensembles focused on early and baroque music, and sang masterpieces by Bach, Carissimi, Couperin, Händel, Mozart, Vivaldi.
As opera soloist, she sang Britten, Menotti, Puccini and premiered two new operas at Biennale di Venezia 2018 (by composers Sofia Avramidou and Elisa Corpolongo).

She has recorded a CD for Bongiovanni with Carissimi’s oratorios (Iudicium Extremum, Jephte).