ELIDE SULSENTI: Music by Sdraulig/Tundo. Performance with cello, headphones and speakers | INTONAL 2026

Dates:

22 April 2026, at 17:00 & 19:00
23 April 2026, at 17:00 & 19:00
24 April 2026, at 17:00 & 19:00

Registration: Limited number of participants. Please register here!

Programme:

Matteo Tundo, Cuoio, for cello and electronics
Charlie Sdraulig, Arc, for cello

Cuoio explores perceptual tension as a physical and spatial phenomenon, treating sound as a material subject to deformation, resistance, and release. The compositional model draws on elastic traction: musical parameters behave like an elastic body under stress, whose perceptual shape changes according to energy, density, articulation, and spectral extension.

The first part articulates four modes of tension: constant, progressive, impulsive, and cyclic, emerging from micro-variations rather than from harmonic or dynamic contrast alone. In the second part, the cello is amplified at a microscopic level through contact microphones, revealing internal frictions and resonances. This sound is delivered directly to the audience, placing the listener inside the instrument’s resonant body, while the electronics unfold in the surrounding space. The result is a dual listening scale, intimate and external, where tension becomes a perceptual dialogue between proximity and distance, materiality and projection.

arc is a work for solo cello that explores extreme intimacy, fragility, and attention at the threshold of audibility. Performed without a bow, the piece reimagines cello playing as a tactile, hyper-sensitive practice based on direct contact between fingers, strings, nails, and skin. Sound emerges through delicate rubbing, slipping, pinching, micro-movements. In arc, amplification is not used to increase volume in a conventional sense, but to enable close, shared listening. Diffused primarily through open-back headphones, and mixed with live sound and speakers, the piece creates a porous listening environment where intimacy and distance continuously shift. The audience is invited into an intensified space of attention, where tiny sonic events are magnified without losing their delicacy, and where individual listening coexists with collective presence. The work also leaves room for interaction with the environment: ambient noises, audience movements, and the acoustic life of the space may become part of the performance.

Elide Sulsenti is a cellist and performer passionate about experimentation and innovation. Her classical training, which includes studies at the Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana in Enrico Dindo’s class and the Hochschule of Lucerne, along with experiences at institutions such as the Ferenc Liszt Academy in Budapest, has led her to focus on contemporary music and the exploration of new sonic potentials. With an interdisciplinary approach, Elide integrates technology, augmented instruments, and performative practices in unconventional contexts. Her performances, ranging from classical to contemporary music, have been recognized with distinctions such as the Fritz Gerber Award (2023) and the Valentino Bucchi Prize (2024). Combining artistic research and experimentation, she enhances the interaction between space, sound, and audience, a theme that is currently central to her doctoral project at the Conservatorio di Ferrara. 

Visit Elide Sulsenti's artist page – elide.it

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