From the very beginning, her concert activities featured repertoires for voice and lute (singing while accompanying herself on the instrument), as well as the solo repertoire for lute, theorbo and basso continuo. As a soloist, she took part in many festivals in Europe and Australia. She provided and played the music for various theatrical productions and appeared as a lutenist on television programs for RAI 2, Channel 4, and others.

She recorded for the labels Dynamic, Stradivarius, Mondo Musica and Nuova Era, with the ensembles Sans souci, Cappella Palatina, Accademia Farnese and the chamber orchestra Offerta Musicale (Music offer) of Venice. She also recorded for the national Italian radio (RAI Radiotre) and for other radio and television networks throughout Europe.

For over a decade she performed in concerts and on discs (for the label Tactus) as theorbist with the ensemble Cappella Artemisia, taking part in many European festivals.

She also released two solo recordings (on Tactus) with music composed by two 17th-century Italian lute composers: Alessandro Piccinini and Pietro Paolo Melli.

In 2007 she published A tutor for the Theorbo for Ut Orpheus editions: this is the first handbook on practical method devoted to this instrument. She is founder and director of the ensemble Scintille di musica (Music sparks), with whom she recorded a CD for the EMI Futuro antico (Ancient future) series: Mantova, la musica alla corte dei Gonzaga (Mantua, music at the Gonzaga court), featuring Angelo Branduardi as the voice. In her role of director-lutenist, she worked on three more CDs of the same series, that were released after 2007: these recordings, focussed on 16th and 17th-century Italian music, were warmly received by the public.

Francesca Torelli has held lute seminars and master classes at many Universities and music institutions. Since 2001 she has been lute professor at the "Giuseppe Verdi" Conservatory in Milan. Find out more at Francesca's personal website at:
www.francescatorelli.com

John Dowland - Lute songs, Lute music

Italian Baroque Music for Archlute

Le Dialogue - Charles Mouton Lute suites

Musique pour le Roy Soleil, Robert de Visee, Works for Theorbo