PH: Auditorium Parco della Musica / ROMA
Valentina is an Italian-German double bassist, composer, and visionary performer, known for her groundbreaking approach to the double bass as a solo instrument and her genre-defying projects. With a career spanning classical, jazz, and contemporary music, she has established herself as a leading figure in today’s music scene, celebrated for her virtuosity, innovation, and artistic depth.
Grew up in Lucca, Italy, Valentina began her musical journey as a pianist before embracing the double bass in 2009. She graduated with honors from the L. Boccherini Music Institute and later earned a Master of Performance from the Royal College of Music in London. She continued her studies at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance under Leon Bosch, receiving multiple prestigious scholarships, including those from Trinity College London and the Leverhulme Trust. In 2018/19, she was awarded the Carne Trust Junior Fellowship, a distinction reserved for outstanding musicians.
Valentina has received numerous awards, including: 1st Prize at the RCM Double Bass Competition (2016), Vernon Elliot Double Bass Competition (2018), Vivian Joseph Classical Concerto Competition – String Category (2018), De Simone and Partners Prize at the Rome Chamber Music Festival (2018), Pass Project Composer Residency Fondazione Arturo Toscanini Parma (2024), Composer in Residence at the Visby International Centre for Composers (Sweden), supported by the Swedish Government (2024) and the Artist in Residence at BANFF, Canada (2019).
She was also a finalist in prestigious international competitions such as Migliori Diplomati d'Italia (2015) and the Double Bass International Competition Galicia Garcia Graves. In 2017, she was selected as one of only 16 double bassists worldwide to compete in the Bradetich Foundation International Double Bass Competition in Texas.
Her compositions have been commissioned by major institutions, including Agnelli Foundation (Torino), Fondazione Arturo Toscanini, Italian Cultural Institutes in Washington DC, Hong Kong, Hannover, Wolfsburg, and Stuttgart and Fondazione Giacomo Puccini (Lucca).
During the pandemic, Valentina gained international recognition for her project How I Met Puccini®, featured in The Strad. This innovative initiative combined historical research, personal storytelling, and performance, offering a fresh and engaging perspective on classical music.
As a soloist, she has performed at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including Teatro Regio di Parma (Italy), Wolfsburg Theater (Germany) and St. Martin-in-the-Fields (London). She has also collaborated with I Solisti Veneti, under the late M. Claudio Scimone, and has premiered new compositions written specifically for her by leading contemporary composers.
A fearless musical explorer, Valentina has redefined the role of the double bass in jazz and experimental music. She has performed at leading jazz festivals, including Düsseldorf Jazz Marathon, Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival, Udine Jazz, Tuscia Jazz Festival, Umbria Jazz Clinics and Zappanale Festival. She has also made a name for herself in the Frank Zappa community, transcribing and performing Zappa’s repertoire for double bass in innovative ways.
Her solo albums showcase her boundary-pushing approach to the instrument:
"Music from the Sphinx" (2019)
"Ruutsu" (2022)
"Shake Your Duty" (2024, Parco della Musica Records, Rome)
8 singles for Ulysses Arts Label (2021)
Currently, Valentina lives in London and is a double bass professor at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and she is the owner of the brand How I met Puccini® She also has extensive experience in jazz, performing at major jazz festivals such as the Dusseldorf Jazz Marathon, Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival, Tuscia Jazz, and Umbria Jazz Clinics, and reaching the finals in competitions such as Tuscia Jazz as the best double bass and electric bass player and the Nicola Tiberio Awards in 2012. She plays a 2014 Scipioni Bass made in Mantua and is a D'Addario artist.
