I am an Italian flautist based between Basel and Milan, active in historically informed performance from the Renaissance to the Romantic period. I have collaborated with ensembles such as Ensemble Astrophil & Stella, Bach Akademie Stuttgart, Utopia Orchestra, and Bremer Barockorchester, among others. During my studies in Basel, I focused on the flute in Italy between the 18th and 19th centuries, a subject explored in my two published Master’s theses. I am also a member of the wind quintet Ensemble Respiratio and the Renaissance flute consort Loreley Traversi, with whom I perform concerts and develop various artistic projects.
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The first thing you do when you pick up your traverso to start the practice day, and why?

I quickly check that the position of the mouth hole, as well as the other holes (including the key hole), fits comfortably with my hands and mouth. I also make sure that the tenons and mortises are tightened to the proper degree. I perform this check-up by playing a few notes from random pieces, usually choosing very fast and technically uncomfortable passages. Based on how they feel, I get an initial sense of how everything - both my body and the flute - is set up.

Any recurring piece to play every day, and why?​

I don’t have any specific piece that I play every day. I often just play fragments of pieces I like, which also tend to change depending on the period. Very often, for the baroque repertoire, they are excerpts from Bach Cantatas, because these are among the pieces I know best - in terms of notes, sound concept, and articulation - so I can play them freely without a score, focusing immediately on how my body and the flute are working together. The same goes for diminutions by Bovicelli on Io son ferito, or Pulchra es amica mea by Francesco Rognoni for renaissance repertoire, and the opening of Mendelssohn’s Violin Sonata in F minor Op. 4 for later repertoire.

Do you have a daily routine?​

No, I don’t have a fixed daily practice routine. My sessions vary depending on the repertoire I need to prepare.

What kind of goals do you set for your practice?​

As a general goal, what I aim to improve through practice is always the ability to be ready to play at any moment. In many situations, there’s no time to warm up as much as we would need, and we have to react quickly to the instrument. So, for me, practicing a piece is first and foremost a way to reach this level of readiness - to be as prepared as possible at the moment of performance.
To reach this readiness, I find it essential to study regularly and over and extended period of time. This kind of distributed practice allows the brain - and consequently the body - to internalize the preparation of a piece more deeply. Continuity and consistency make the reaction to the instrument increasingly natural. Then, at the moment of performance, it’s often enough to just briefly test the contact of the flute with the lips or produce a single sound, since this state of readiness has already been trained through steady and mindful practice.
A specific aspect I constantly work on is articulation speed (both single and double), because it’s a stimulating challenge for me. It helps improve my technique not only in terms of tonguing, but also in hand speed and finger coordination. To improve coordination between articulation and finger movement, I first play the passage entirely legato, in order to understand the maximum speed my fingers can handle. Once I’ve found that limit, I gradually integrate the articulation - starting slowly and then increasing the tempo little by little. During this process I focus very consciously on each individual tongue movement, trying to feel every motion to make the articulation as clean and clear as possible.

Do you do any systematic warm-up?

I don’t have a systematic physical warm-up. I usually have a mental one: before playing, I always try to prepare my mind as much as possible by putting myself in a very positive, active, and motivated mindset, trying to think of any piece I’m about to play as the most beautiful one ever written. This mental state automatically helps my body as well.
Being mentally focused increases the awareness of any tension or blockage in my body, allowing me to release it as quickly as possible.
An extra help comes from doing sport at least twice a week - going to the gym or playing racket sports like tennis or padel. This helps me stay in an acceptable physical shape, allowing my body to be flexible during practice and avoiding physical problems that often come from a sedentary lifestyle - a common risk for musicians.

Do you have a specific structure for warm-up and practice sessions?

Since my practice is always based on the repertoire I need to prepare, I would say there’s no fixed structure. It always changes depending on what I need to work on.

What are the key elements and unmissable points of daily practice?

For me, the most essential point is to be active, not passive. It’s very important to keep the mind focused in order to solve both technical and musical problems. Another key element is the willingness to practice - if there’s no motivation, the session will likely be useless, because we won’t be able to process and retain information effectively. To stay motivated, I find it essential to set clear and achievable goals, instead of seeing practice as an obligation. The drive to improve must come from ourselves, from the awareness that every small step contributes to long-term growth. Being conscious of our own limits can also become a source of motivation, as it gives us something concrete to work on and encourages continuous self-improvement.

How long and distributed should warm-up and practice be?

I think it depends on the individual. In general, I would say that practicing for a long time requires changing flutes occasionally, as playing on the same instrument for too long can stress the wood. If you don’t have two baroque flutes you can always switch to a renaissance or a classical-romantic one, changing also the repertoire you are studying. Regarding the practice schedule, I personally prefer to concentrate my practice into one long session with very short breaks (2–3 minutes) in between, because short, interrupted sessions don’t help me maintain good continuity. However, for someone who is just starting out and needs to absorb a lot of new information, while making greater physical and mental efforts, it might be better to work in shorter, more fragmented sessions to avoid getting too tired and losing focus. When it comes to timing, I don’t follow a fixed schedule - I might practice in the morning, afternoon, or evening. I always try to start when I genuinely feel like practicing and when I’m motivated, even if that’s not always 100% possible.

Any  specific tip to address difficult technical passages during daily practice?

What I’ve found most helpful when tackling difficult passages is first to identify exactly what isn’t working, isolate it, and then correct it. Technical and expressive elements such as fingering, articulation, speed, tone, dynamics, phrasing, and intonation are all interconnected - so difficulties in one area often affect others.
That said, some aspects are more closely related than others. For example, articulation, speed, and fingering are often tightly linked, just as dynamics, phrasing, and intonation tend to influence each other more directly.
When practicing, try changing one element at a time to understand where the issue really lies. Then, work slowly on that passage, focusing on the specific technical detail that needs attention, while gradually reintegrating it with the parts that already function well. This process of reintegration is often the real challenge - and where the most meaningful progress happens.
Regarding ornamentation: I think it's essential to take inspiration from the many historical examples we have - they offer a wealth of stylistic and technical models to learn from.
Then, practicing certain ornamentation formulas in different keys helps internalize them and makes it easier to use and combine them fluently in various musical contexts.
Improvising in this way is also extremely helpful - whether through short preludes, improvising melodies over standard bass patterns, or working on partimento-style realizations. These exercises not only develop agility with ornaments but also deepen understanding of style and harmonic function.

Are there any tools that are particularly useful for practicing?

Sound recorders and mirrors are extremely useful! We can’t hear exactly how our playing sounds from the outside, and we can’t appreciate our overall posture, nor see our lips, or many other important parts of our body while playing. That’s why I encourage using them during practice.
Metronomes and tuners are, of course, important references, but we must also learn to stay in time and in tune without them by training our ears. In reality, a great deal of flexibility is needed when it comes to tempo and intonation, since relying too much on these tools can lead to a rigid standardization that doesn’t always suit musical expression or live performance conditions.
Another point to consider with tuners is that every flute is different, so some notes may sound higher or lower depending on the instrument. In this respect, a tuner can be useful initially to better understand our own instrument, allowing us to react quickly and make corrections later by ear.

Any other general advice, suggestion, tip?

Three tips: after all, 3 is a quite important number in music 😉.
Don’t underestimate the power of a motivated, hardworking, and proactive mindset, as well as learning through imitation! I believe that imitating others is a very powerful and natural way to learn faster and more intuitively - and, most importantly, without wasting time.
Listen to as many recordings as you can! We’re lucky to have access to a huge amount of high-quality recorded music today. Listening actively teaches us a lot and can significantly speed up the learning process, even during the practice phase. It takes much longer to study a piece without having a clear aural idea of it, compared to approaching it after having listened and internalized it. And this doesn’t mean we give up our own personal approach - quite the opposite: listening helps build a foundation, from which we can develop our own voice more consciously.
Don’t be afraid of making mistakes! They are the starting point for improvement. 😊

Are there any specific pieces particularly beneficial to be played regularly in daily practice?

Once you have studied it thoroughly or feel comfortable enough with it, I think Bach’s flute Partita in A minor BWV 1013 is a very complete piece under all aspects - though of course, it’s good to change from time to time! One of the reasons why this piece is so valuable for regular practice is that it is very familiar to most players - we already have it in our ears. This allows us to immerse ourselves in its study from the very beginning, with an already broad musical vision. At the same time, it keeps teaching us new things each time we return to it. It’s one of those works that never stops revealing new details, both technically and musically, making it a constant source of inspiration and growth.

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