FLAME | Florence Art Music Ensemble aims to bring together musicians and artists to offer audiences a new experience of concerts, a new approach to the contemporary. FLAME organizes the festival FIRENZE SUONA CONTEMPORANEA, to promote the italian and european new music in Florence.
Today, the ensemble's stable set is formed by Chiara Scucces - flutes, Emilio Checchini - clarinets, Ilaria Lanzoni - violin, Michele Marco Rossi - cello, Luisa Valeria Carpignano - piano; Andrea Cavallari and Luisa Valeria Carpignano are the ensemble's directors.
FLAME is a versatile ensemble that each year involves young professional musicians from Italy and elsewhere in Europe in large-scale projects: for example, a chamber-music event to celebrate the hundredth birthday of Elliott Carter (participants included Ursula and Heinz Holliger, Gianfranco Vinay and Italo Dall’Orto); or the day dedicated to John Cage at the Palazzo Vecchio, when simultaneous performances of his works were given in all the galleries of the building, enabling the listener to experience Cage’s music as if following the sequence of a visual arts exhibition.
The ensemble has also given concerts dedicated to the most famous contemporary Italian composers (Salvatore Sciarrino, Luciano Berio, Fausto Romitelli), where the contemporary repertoire alternated with masterpieces from the classical repertoire, from Beethoven to Brahms.
In addition to traditional concerts, the ensemble also engages in multimedia projects (e.g. projects for New York University in Florence), art installations and experimental cross-over projects between theatrical performances and new technologies in real time.
FLAME collaborates regularly with young composers, organizes Call for Scores (2013, 2015) and commissions every year several world premieres.
The ensemble, which has its home at the National Museum of the Bargello, has been invited to represent Italian contemporary music at various other festivals in Europe: it performed, under the baton of Claudio Ambrosini, at the opening concert for the London Ear Festival 2013, broadcasted by the BBC Radio 3; that same year FLAME inaugurated the Weimar Spring Contemporary Music Festival. In 2015 FLAME was the ensemble in residence for the London Ear Festival, with the generous support of Italian Ministry, G.A.I. (Movin'up Project) and Italian Cultural Institute.
