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The Argentinean mezzo-soprano, Florencia Menconi, began her musical studies at the Conservatorio Superior de Música of Buenos Aires "Astor Piazzolla". There she studied transverse flute in the main subject. In 2008 she became a flautist in the Orquesta Estudiantil de Buenos Aires (Student Orchestra Buenos Aires) under the direction of Guillermo Jorge Zalcman. In 2009, she began her vocal studies at Poly Barrios in Buenos Aires. As a result, she got in touch with the vocal ensemble Hoquetus and thus for the first time in contact with early music. Since 2009, she has mainly dedicated her singing career to the Baroque repertoire. She has worked with ensembles in Buenos Aires, Curitiba and Londrina. In 2012 she started her studies of Early Music at the Conservatorio Superior de Música "Manuel de Falla" in Buenos Aires. In the same year she met in Buenos Aires on the Argentinean mezzo-soprano Rosa Domínguez, who proposed her for study at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Basel.
In 2013 Florencia Menconi moved to Europe to continue her studies at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, institution in which she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Music and her Master in Performance under the tutelage of the Rosa Domínguez. She has also participated in courses and master-classes with Andreas Scholl, Emma Kirkby, Adriana Fernández, Maria Cristina Kiehr, Rodrigo del Pozo, Gerd Türk, Ulrich Messthaler and Margreet Honig, among others.
Since she lives in Europe, Florencia Menconi is a member of the Novantik Projektes Basel, a group of young musicians who are equally committed to the repertoire of the early as well as the contemporary music. She worked for the Anton-Webern-Chor under the direction of Hans-Michael Beuerle in Freiburg im Breisgau and Strasbourg. In June 2014, she co-founded and is director of Ensemble I Discordanti, a new formation of young musicians dedicated to the performance of 17th-century Italian music, and beneficiary of the prestigious promotion program for young musicians Vier Jahreszeiten (2014-2015) and EEEmerging (2016), organized by the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis and Creative Europe (European Community) respectively.
As a stable member of Domus Artis, a vocal ensemble specializing in 16th century music, Florencia Menconi took part in 2016 in seminars and workshops with Dominique Visse and Kate Van Orden at the Fondazione Giorgio Cini (Venice - org. Pedro Memelsdorff). The ensemble is currently working in partnership with Johannes Keller (Basel) within Studio 31, a breakthrough research project that has as main goal the construction of a historical arch-organ designed by Nicola Vicentino (1511-1576/77). This project recorded a CD album in March 2019 containing chromatic madrigals by Michelangelo Rossi with the label Glossa. Domus Artis was granted with the Second Prize in the Journées de Musiques Anciennes Competition 2017 (Vanves, France).
Florencia Menconi regularly collaborates with ensembles such as Música Temprana, BernVocal, La Cetra Vokalensemble Basel, La Grande Chapelle, Basler Madrigalisten and Ensemble Orlando Fribourg, under the guidance of directors such as Andrea Marcon, Albert Recasens, Laurent Gendre and Adrian van der Spoel. She has performed at some of the most important festivals of Early Music in Europe, such as Festival Internacional de Arte Sacro (Madrid), Festival d’Ambronay, Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht and Festtage Alte Musik Basel. In 2015, she was part of La Cetra Vokalensemble Basel in the production of Antonio Vivaldi's Juditha Triumphans at the Theater Basel, conducted by Andrea Marcon.
Parallel to her extensive work as a Renaissance and Baroque music interpreter, Florencia Menconi regularly ventures into the field of Romantic and contemporary music. Her versatility as an interpreter is reflected in the premiere of Medea's role in Das goldene Vliess - directed and composed by Nikolaus Matthes - and her participation in the award-winning theatrical production Requiem for a Piece of Meat, directed and produced by Daniel Hellman, in co-production between Novantik Projekt Basel and 3art3 Company.
Florencia Menconi will participate in the next recording of the ensemble Seconda Pratica for the label Outhere, around Josquin’s Missa Mater Patris et Filia under the direction of Dr. Rebecca Stewart. She currently lives in Basel, Switzerland. |
