Valentina Ciardelli

In 2018/19, Valentina was awarded Trinity Laban’s Carne Trust Junior Fellowship for an Individual. Valentina also focused her attention on composition, graduating in March 2014 with Honours. She explores in the worldwide music scenario a brand repertoire and establishing a new double bass playing virtuosity: a protagonist, very versatile, self- efficient and unique instrument. She is spreading the new repertoire and approach to reach equality between music instruments.

Valentina has won several awards and prizes including first prize in the RCM Double Bass Competition 2016, the Vernon Elliot Double bass Competition 2018, the Vivian Joseph Classical Concerto Competition 2018, String Category and the De Simone and Partners prize in the Chamber Music Festival in Rome. Valentina also won a place with a scholarship in the Accademia Chigiana for summer 2018 with Maestro Giuseppe Ettorre.

She was finalist in important national and international competitions such as the “Migliori Diplomati D’Italia” (best young Italian music graduate) 2015 and “Double bass international competition Galicia Garcia Graves. She was selected with other 16 young double bass players around the world to perform in the live final rounds at the worldwide double bass solo competition granted by “Bradetich Foundation” in Denton, Texas, at the end of august 2017.

Valentina also won several orchestral auditions such as Gustav Mahler Academy 2016 and BBC SO training scheme. She recently won the Artist in Residence at the BANFF, Alberta (Canada) that has hosted her from 15th till 28th September 2019. She gave solo performances with “I solisti veneti” with M. Claudio Scimone and she won the prestigious scholarship granted by this Academy (Proliber). She has performed as a soloist and chamber musician world renowned concert halls such as Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Argentina in Rome, St Martin in the Fields in London.

Currently, Valentina is double bass professor at Trinity Laban Conservatorie of Music and Dance in Leon Bosch’s class and double bass professor at the London performing academy of music in London. She won a scholarship from associazione Animando in Lucca for a research project investigating the music of Giacomo Puccini’s ancestors and her work has been published for the Japanese Press da Vinci. She has debuted her first solo album, Music from the Sphinx in November 2019 with a brand-new repertoire. Valentina’s work is focused to expand the double bass solo repertoire composing new repertoire, transcribing Frank Zappa’s Repertoire and playing new composition written for her from many contemporary composers.

Her second album Ruutsu was released on April 24th 2022 and the project How I met Puccini (www.howimetpuccini), debuted in 2020 with an online series, is going to be launched in 2024 as augmented performance concept in UK and EU Theatres.

Valentina also has a wide Jazz experience playing in important Jazz Festival such as Dusseldorf Jazz Marathon, Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival, Tuscia Jazz, Umbria Jazz.