Interpretationsforum - Elisa Rumici, Hochschule für Musik Basel

This project explores the life, reception, and piano music of Gilda Ruta (1853–1932), an Italian composer whose legacy has been largely forgotten. Through examining historical articles, personal letters, and direct engagement with the performance of her piano works, the project aims to reconstruct Ruta’s artistic identity and critically assess the societal structures that shaped her career.

Ruta’s life offers a powerful example of how gender, class, and regional identity influenced both the opportunities available to women composers and the ways their achievements were framed. Raised in a privileged musical environment in Naples, Ruta benefited from strong family support yet encountered significant limitations within Italy’s musical world. After personal tragedy and professional setbacks, she reinvented herself in the United States as a pianist, composer, and educator. Her story reveals a complex relation between privilege and marginalization, ambition and expectation, resulting in a portrait that resists clear, univocal definitions and is continuously reframed through the perspectives of the various sources that speak about her.

The project combines historical research and artistic practice. Press articles, letters, and archival documents are analysed alongside a direct performance-based engagement with Ruta’s piano music, approaching her works from a performer’s perspective. Technical, stylistic, and interpretative aspects of her compositions are examined in live listening sessions, paired with readings from contemporary documents. This dual methodology allows for a critical comparison between the image Ruta projected through her music and the narratives society constructed around her.

The research draws on recent studies about Italian women composers such as Musiciste e compositrici. Storia e storie, by L. Aversano, O. Caianiello and M. Gammaitoni, and archival materials on Gilda Ruta preserved by G. Vigliar as well as his book Gilda Ruta. Le due vite di una musicista napoletana. It is also informed by contemporary discussions about the integration of practice and theory, among them Beyond the Score Music as Performance by N. Cook.

Rediscovering Ruta’s piano music not only restores the voice of a marginalised figure but also invites broader reflection on how forgotten repertoires can reshape the classical music field. Ultimately, the project confronts historical biases in the construction of musical canons and questions how performers, educators, and scholars can reframe the way underrepresented repertoires are valued and narrated today.

Elisa Rumici is an Italian pianist and researcher.

Active in the field of music dissemination, Elisa brings classical music to the public through innovative concert formats, regularly performing in Europe in across Europe in prestigious venues, including the Milan Expo, the Fazioli Showroom in Milan, the Italian Institute of Culture in Stuttgart, the Circolo dei Lettori in Turin, Teatro La Fenice in Venice, Teatro Vittoria in Turin, Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine, and Gare du Nord in Basel. Selected performances have been recorded and broadcast by Antena 2 in Portugal, Lodi Crema TV, and Radio Antenna 5 in Italy.

As a soloist, she has performed Mozart’s Concerto K. 271 in Vicenza and Crema, Schumann’s Concerto Op. 54 at the FVG International Music Meeting, and Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with the Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico. Her collaborations include performances with the Ensemble Diagonal under the baton of Baldur Brönnimann and with the Schlagzeug-Ensemble of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg under the direction of Håkon Stene. She is also a regular guest at the chamber music festival of the Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico.

Elisa has been awarded twenty-seven first prizes in national and international competitions and has received numerous scholarships. She is currently supported by the Cusanuswerk Stiftung. Her concert project Revealed Virtuosity was awarded the Walter und Corina Christen-Marchal-Stiftung Prize in 2024.

A dedicated advocate for contemporary music, Elisa premiered Luigi Donorà’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra da Camera in collaboration with the composer and recorded Francesco Marino’s Oceano for the album Francesco Marino Piano Works (Diapason Records). Her discography further includes Gilda Ruta Piano Works (Da Vinci Publishing), A Musical Journey (Rhein Records), and a contribution to the soundtrack of the documentary Foibe, il dramma dei deportati e scomparsi, screened at the 71st Venice Film Festival.

Elisa received her first piano lessons from Maria Cristina Sgura and then studied with Maria Grazia Cabai, Roberto Plano, and Riccardo Zadra. She obtained her diploma in piano performance at the Music Conservatory J. Tomadini in Udine in 2013 at the age of 17, and in 2016, she received her diploma in piano performance at the Accademia Musicale Varesina and graduated magna cum laude at the Music Conservatory A. Pedrollo di Vicenza. After having studied at the Accademia Musicale in Pinerolo with Enrico Pace, she received a Master degree in Piano Performance and a Master degree in Piano Pedagogy under the guidance of Filippo Gamba at the Hochschule für Musik Basel.

An avid researcher, Elisa is currently pursuing a doctorate at the Hochschule für Musik in Freiburg under the supervision of Prof. N. Loges and Prof. A. Gomez. She has been invited to present her research at major international conferences and academic events, including the RAPP Lab at HfMT Köln, the 23rd GMTH Congress in Freiburg, the 1st and 2nd ANDA Conferences in Modena and Naples, the 20th and 21st GATM Congresses in Salerno, the 13th Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900 at KU Leuven, the Annual Conference of the Society for Music Research at HfMT Köln, the doctoral seminars at Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, the 48 colloquium at Hochschule für Musik Basel, and the Study Days on Artistic Research at Hochschule Luzern.

Dedicated to fostering gender inclusivity in classical music, she co-organizes the Feminale festival in Basel alongside Margalith Eugster and Sofia Will.