Interpretationsforum - Elisa Rumici

Abstract:
This project explores the life, reception, and piano music of Gilda Ruta (1853–1932), an Italian composer largely forgotten today. Drawing on historical articles, letters, and direct engagement with the performance of her works, it reconstructs Ruta’s artistic identity while examining the societal structures that shaped her career.

Ruta’s story illustrates how gender, class, and regional identity influenced the opportunities and limitations faced by women composers. Raised in Naples with strong support yet constrained by Italy’s musical world, she later reinvented herself in the United States as pianist, composer, and educator. Her life reveals a complex dynamic of privilege and marginalisation, ambition and expectation.

The research combines archival study with performance-based inquiry. Ruta’s piano works are explored technically and interpretatively in live sessions, alongside readings from contemporary documents. This dual approach highlights the contrast between the image she projected through her music and the narratives imposed upon her.

Rediscovering Ruta not only restores the voice of a marginalised figure but also questions historical biases in canon formation, inviting reflection on how performers and scholars can reframe underrepresented repertoires today.

Bio:

Elisa Rumici is an Italian pianist and researcher, active in music dissemination and committed to promoting gender equity in classical music.

She performs regularly across Europe in venues such as Expo Milano, the Fazioli Showroom Milan, the Italian Institute of Culture in Stuttgart, Teatro La Fenice Venice, Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine, and Gare du Nord Basel. In 2024 and 2025 she was invited to Pianofest in the Hamptons (USA). As a chamber musician, she collaborates frequently with the Orchestra del Teatro Olimpico in Vicenza, with whom she has also appeared as soloist in Beethoven’s Triple Concerto. She has performed Mozart’s Concerto K. 271 in Vicenza and Crema, Schumann’s Concerto Op. 54 in Sacile, and collaborated with ensembles including Ensemble Diagonal under Baldur Brönnimann and the Schlagzeug-Ensemble of the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg under Håkon Stene.

Her discography includes Gilda Ruta Piano Works (Da Vinci), A Musical Journey (Rhein Records), Francesco Marino Piano Works (Diapason), and the soundtrack of Foibe, il dramma dei deportati e scomparsi, screened at the 71st Venice Film Festival.

Winner of twenty-seven first prizes in competitions, she has received numerous scholarships and is currently supported by the Cusanuswerk Stiftung. Her concert project Revealed Virtuosity received the Walter und Corina Christen-Marchal-Stiftung Prize in 2024.

She studied with Roberto Plano, Stefania Redaelli, and Riccardo Zadra, before continuing at the Accademia di Musica in Pinerolo with Enrico Pace, and completing a master in Piano Performance and Pedagogy at the Hochschule für Musik Basel with Filippo Gamba.

Alongside her concert activity, Elisa is an active researcher. She is pursuing a doctorate at the Hochschule für Musik Freiburg under the supervision of Prof. Natasha Loges and Prof. Alfonso Gómez. Her work has been published in Analitica and presented at international conferences and academic events, including the RAPP Lab at HfMT Köln, the GMTH Congress (Freiburg), the GATM Congresses (Salerno), the ANDA Conferences (Modena, Naples, Alessandria), the Biennial International Conference on Music Since 1900 (KU Leuven), the Annual Conference of the Society for Music Research (HfMT Köln), Broadening Music Performance (University of Surrey), DIP 2025 (Uniarts Helsinki), and the EPTA Conference in Madrid, as well as at doctoral seminars in Freiburg, Basel, and Lucerne. She also co-organised and chaired the ARIM conference in Freiburg.

Dedicated to fostering gender inclusivity in classical music, she is co-founder and co-director of the Feminale Festival in Basel with Margalith Eugster, a platform for the promotion of women composers past and present.