Biography
The ensemble is created in 2018 when Niki Lada (Soprano) and Alessia Damiani (Composer and Electroacoustic Performer), both interested in contemporary classical repertoire, meet. Its debut takes place in September 2020 in the Tempo Reale Festival 2020 "UNLOCKED SOUND" (Italy) with the sound walk /ɡlɔssolaˈlia/. On January 30 2021, the video art /dis'tantse/ is broadcasted on the radio marathon on Ràdioilla Formentera 107.9 FM organized by Freedom the New Human Manifesto (Spain). On March 9 2021 /dis'tantse/ was also included in Audiovisual Poetic Anthology by Revista Innombrable (Mexico). /dis'tantse/ has furthermore travelled to Lacuna Festivals 2021 (Spain), to Artperformingfestival -performance art an independent art festival of Italy "L'Umanita - il mondo che verra" 2021(Naples-Castel dell'Ovo) and to the ARTICULATE Virtual Gallery for "Pandemic Art 1.0" exhibition, waiting to be published in November 2021 as part of ARTICULATE'S hard copy book debut. The ensemble performs both existing repertoire as well as unpublished one of performative character.
Born in 1986 in Thessaloniki, Greece the soprano Niki Lada is a holder of a Diploma in Classical Singing and Opera Studies, a Diploma in Opera, Drama and Contemporary Dance from the State Conservatory of Thessaloniki and an MA in Classical Singing and Opera Performance from Francesco Morlacchi Conservatory of Music of Perugia under the guidance of M.G.Pittavini. She has taken part in masterclasses and summer music academies with various artists of international fame like C. Studer, K. Hartgrove, G. Vagianos, S. Theodoridou, G. Hatzinikos and others, while she frequented lessons at the National Opera of Paris with Françoise Ferrand , Thibaud Conservatory of Bordeaux with Charon Coste Jacques , Royal Danish Academy of Music with Asa Bäverstam, Susanna Eken, Kirsten Buhl Møller and at the Conservatory of Toulouse.
She is mainly performing XX and XXI century repertoire as a soloist. Her repertoire includes among others works of Menotti, Barber, Poulenc, Bernstein, Casella, Berio, Berberian, Cage, Donatoni, Scelsi, Part, Vasks, Kagel, Aperghis, Zorn, Bedrossian, Lanza, Marco di Bari, Spyrou, Segglias. She has collaborated with musicians, composers, sound artists, directors, ensembles and artistic collectives of the contemporary and experimental scene such as the Divertimento Ensemble, Suono Giallo Ensemble, Meta-Ksi, 2.0, Marco di Bari, Zesses Segglias, Alexandros Spyrou, Stefano Alessandretti, Marco Bellussi, Viktoriia Vitrenko, Nestor Bayona, Alessia Damiani, Alessandro Fiordelmondo, Yannis Aniseggos, Theofilos Sotiriadis. She is performing world premieres and works written for her voice in venues, residencies, academies and festivals as the Fabbrica del Vapore di Milano, Teatro Litta di Milano, Teatro degli Illuminati, Teatro Arrigoni, Teatro Pavone, Teatro Cesare Caporali, Rondò in Monferrato,Tempo Reale Festival-Unlocked Sound, Delian Academy, Il Suono Contemporary Music Week, SKG Bridges Festival, Dimitria Festival of Thessaloniki, Modern and Contemporary Music Festival of Perugia, Festival dei Due Mondi di Spoleto. She has also performed works of the sacred and the baroque repertoire. She has participated in projects and baroque operas as a mime and an actor among others, PanOpera Festival and has worked with associations as the Barocco Europeo and the Teathron Musike. Furthermore, she has taken part in performances some of which with Marina Abramovic and Marianna Andrigo and Aldo Aliprandi, in venues and festivals such as The Serpentine Galleries, the Biennale of Thessaloniki and others while she is working closely with performers and video artists, exploring vocal extended techniques and improvisation.
She is studying under the guidance of Alda Caiello.
Alessia Damiani
Sound Designer / Composer
Alessia Damiani - Italian composer, electroacoustic performer & sound designer. She graduated with honorable mention under the guidance of Maestri such as L. Ceccarelli, S. Pappalardo, F. Cifariello Ciardi, F. Antonioni, P. Rotili and M. Momi. She has been musically active both as a performer and a composer in Italy, UK, USA, Mexico, Spain, Germany etc. Her Works have been performed, among others, in festivals such as NYCEMF - New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, MUSLAB Electroacoustic Music International Exhibition (Mexico), Mediagrammi (Berlin), etc
As a performer she played for/with Francesco Giomi, Tempo Reale, Simone Pappalardo and others. Furthermore M-Flute A/V Performance was selected in MA/IN Matera Intermedia Festival 2018, Teatri di Vetro and UKYA 2019 - UK Young Artists City Takeover (Nottingham). She also supervised the sound engineering for various international events, including the Festival Dei Due Mondi in Spoleto.
She actively collaborates with various personalities of the Italian and European panorama, such as Salvatore Insana, Michele Ragni, Filippo Gualazzi, Niki Lada, Riccardo Truffarelli. In 2019 she also made sound design for an interactive solo exhibition in which the Maestro of photography and documentary Riccardo Truffarelli shows his forty years of career.
Now she is working on an audiovisual work on the theme of power in collaboration with Insana (Die_Macht), on a new A/V performance involving Arduino and physical computing with Gualazzi, and as sound designer for Monacelli Group s.p.a.
In 2020 she was Sound Design Professor in Bari Academy of Fine Arts.
She's member of DDoS A/V Project and [tis ixu's] Ensemble.