Alessandra Cefaliello

Alessandra Cefaliello began studying the cello at the age of five with Maestro Massimo Mannacio; she continued her musical studies at the “N. Piccinni” Conservatoire in Bari, where she graduated with top marks under the guidance of Maestro Vito Paternoster, and subsequently graduated from the “S. Cecilia” Academy in Rome under the guidance of Giovanni Sollima.

From the outset, she undertook the study of the instrument not only as a soloist but also in chamber ensembles, including piano duos, string quartets and orchestral formations, whilst also performing as a soloist.
She has attended numerous advanced courses in cello and chamber music with Vito Paternoster, the members of the Cremona Quartet, Alexander Bonduryansky, Christophe Giovaninetti, Eime Müller and many others.

Winner of the first prize at the 4th “Igor Stravinsky” National Music Competition in Bari in 2002, and at the 1st “Luigi Russo” National Music Competition in Bari in 2006. In 2010, she took part in several national and international chamber music competitions as part of a trio, including the 9th “Don Vincenzo Vitti” International Competition for Musical Performance and Composition, where she won the first prize.

Since 2012, she has been a member of the Guadagnini Quartet, winner of the 33rd Franco Abbiati Prize and currently ranked among Europe’s most promising chamber ensembles, dedicated to the great classical and Romantic quartet repertoire, with a particular focus on 20th-century repertoire and contemporary music.

With the Guadagnini Quartet, she has already performed in Italy’s most prestigious concert halls, for the Società del Quartetto in Milan, the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, the Teatro “La Fenice” in Venice, the Stradivari Festival in Cremona, at the Auditorium Arvedi of the Museo del Violino in Cremona, at the Unione Musicale in Turin, at the Società Umanitaria, the Bologna Festival, the Amici della Musica in Padua, the Teatro Alighieri in Ravenna, for the Associazione A. Mariani, the Teatro Ponchielli, the Teatro Massimo in Pescara, the Teatro Savoia in Campobasso, the Teatro Politeama in Palermo, the Teatro della Pergola in Florence and for the Camerata Musicale Barese. With the same quartet, she has also performed in France, Austria, Switzerland and, since last year, in China.

Together they have won numerous competitions and honed their skills with the Cremona Quartet at the “W. Stauffer” Academy in Cremona; they also take lessons with Maestro Hatto Beyerle, the long-standing violist of the Alban Berg Quartet and a great admirer of theirs, and with Patrick Juedt.

They have performed on RAI 5 in Inventare il tempo, a programme conceived and presented by Sandro Cappelletto, in an episode dedicated to Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Quartet K465 “Le Dissonanze”, on RAI 3 alongside Corrado Augias and Giovanni Bietti in the programme Visionari, and are regular guests on radio programmes and stations dedicated to major concert music of international significance.

Alessandra Cefaliello plays a 2016 cello by Filippo Fasser, modelled on a design by Pietro Giacomo Rogeri.