Lorenzo Ghirlanda

Lorenzo Ghirlanda was born in Lugano in 1974. He has received the diploma in trombone at Bern University of Arts. During his studies he joined the Bern Opera for two years as a trombonist. From 1998 till 2001 he was a postgraduate student at the Liszt School of Music Weimar and at the Scola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel) where he specialised in baroque trombone.

In 1999 he founded the instrumental consort "Canto antico" together with three other trombonists to provide a forum for his work with historical instruments and Renaissance and baroque musical performance tradition. The ensemble won the first prize of the International Jan Koetsier Competition.

Lorenzo constantly works with Luca Pianca, the ensemble of Vittorio Ghielmi, "Il suonar parlante" and the ensemble "La Galeazzesca" (Milan). For years there has been an intense cooperation with the dutch conductor and composer, Hans Rotmann, with whom he develops projects which build links between early and contemporary music. In their multimedia-based production "Membra Jesu nostri" of Dietrich Buxtehude during the Semana de música religiosa de Cuenca in 2007 Lorenzo Ghirlanda was coauthor and soloist.

From 2004 till 2006 he developed the project "Europa Werkstatt" at the "Kunstfest Weimar" (Artistic Director: Nike Wagner), which every year brought together young european musicians with famous soloists. In 2006 it was Ivo Pogorelich, the great piano player, who was working with the young orchestra. Since then, Lorenzo is also working as Pogorelich’s artistic adviser. In 2008 he gave his debut as a conductor with the Handel opera "Alcina" at the Handel Festival in Halle. Future projects with him conducting include a trilogy of fragments of unknown Handel operas: 2010 "Titus", directed by Schorsch Kamerun, 2011 "Berenice" directed by Paul Binnerts and 2012 "Alceste" with "Showcase Beat le Mot".

In addition to his performing and conducting activities, Lorenzo Ghirlanda devoted his time to the academic research. From 2003 till 2005 he was a stipendiary of the Swiss National Science Foundation and developed the project "Language in music". He worked on the subjects of historic trombone and techniques of articulation at the Scola Cantorum Basiliensis (Basel), the Liszt School of Music Weimar, the Colloque Harmonique in Lausanne and at the Conservatoire of Swiss Italy in Lugano.

Since 2008 Lorenzo Ghirlanda is responsible for a research project about the acoustic and articulate topics at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana. In February 2009 he presented the project during the international conference "The Reflective Conservatoire: Building Connections" at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London.

Current Projects

Shape the Sound: Trumpet Mouthpiece Manufacturing and Tone Quality