The ensemble of Conrad Steinmann
Luiz Alves da Silva was born in Brazil in 1964. It was there that he received his first music tuition. In 1982 he won first prize in the Competition for Young Singers held by the Sao Paulo Symphony Orchestra. From 1983 to 1989, Luiz Alves da Silva studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Kurt Widmer (singing), Christoph Schmidt (Gregorian music) and with Hans Martin Linde (choral conducting). In 1989-90 he was a member of the international Opera Studio in Zürich. He has won study prizes of the Migros Cooperative, the Ernst Göhner Foundation and of the President's Department of the City of Zürich.
He gives many concerts throughout Europe, as for exemple with the Clemencic Consort of Vienna, the Istitutioni Harmoniche of Bologna, the Ensemble 1492 of London, the Ensemble Turicum of Zürich, and Hesperion XX and Capella Reval in Barcelona under the direction of Jordi Savall, with whom he has participated in many recordings.
In December 1990, Luiz Alves da Silva sang the title role in Mozat's opera Ascanio in Alba in the Konzerthaus in Vienna. Further engagements in the concert and opera circuit took him to the Ulm City Theatre (Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre), to the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris, the Zürich Opera House (Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre, Händel's Deidamia), to the Music Theatre of Bienne (Britten's Midsummer Night's Dream), to the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, to the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, to Galway and Kikkeny Festivals in Irland, to the Victoria Hall in Geneva, The Filharmonia in Warsaw, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Styriarte in Graz, the Teagu Festival in South Korea, the Amazonas Theatre in Manaus, the National Theatre of La Paz, etc. In collabaration with Swiss RadioDRS 2, Luiz Alves da Silva has made several world pemi?re recordings with the Ensemble TURICUM that he founded himself, as for example of the Stabat Mater by Giovanni Gualberto Brunetti (PAN Classics) as well as three CD's with Brazilian music from the colonial period (Claves and K617)
Massimo Cialfi was born in 1960 in Milano, Italy, where he followed his first musical training. Further studies in baroque trombone led him to Den Haag (NL) and to the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, specializing to early repertoire, for exemple the Alta Capella. Beside his trombone carreer he is mostly interested in old arab percussion imstruments, wich makes him a well seen member of various Early Music ensembles, mixing traditional techniques with scientific knowledges.
Conrad Steinmann was born in Rapperswil in 1951 and studied recorder at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. In 1972 , he won first prize at the International Recorder Competition in Bruges in Belgium. From 1975 to 1982, he taught at the Zürich Music Academy. In 1982, he was appointed to the staff of the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. In 1991 he was awarded the Arts Prize of the C.H.Ernst Stiftung in Winterthur. Conrad Steinmann is a member of the recorder ensemble'diferencias'. He received particular impetus from his singing lessons with Kurt Widmer, from his work with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, and from his work as performer and concert organizer of contemporary music. He has given the world premi?res of numerous works that were written for him, by for exemple M. Käser, R. Kelterborn, H.Marti, R.Moser, U.P.Schneider, P.Streiff, M.Wehrli, B.Trümpy, H.U.Lehmann and V. Ekimovsky. He is particularly interested in the research into and resurrection of the music of the Ancient Greeks.
