IM duo / Ludmila Ignatova & Andrea Monarda in a concert with Spanish Music for voice and guitar

IMduo has been founded in 2012 by the Latvian singer Ludmila Ignatova and the Italian guitarist Andrea Monarda, with the aim to explore the historical and contemporary music for voice and guitar. The duo has been touring in The Netherlands, Italy and Latvia since 2013 and its repertoire goes from the Spanish music by Manuel de Falla, Joaquin Rodrigo and Federico Garcia Lorca, to the lieder by Mozart, transcibed for voice and guitar, up to the music written by Mauro Giuliani. In 2017, the Italian composer Giorgio Colombo Taccani wrote for IMduo a new piece, which will be soon recorded in the album “Giorgio Colombo Taccani – Selected works”. The duo has been invited in Festivals such as Torino suona Mozart, Torino Classical Music Festival, Barocco nei luoghi del Barocco and Zomeravonden at Theater Lexor in Heerlen, The Netherlands.

“I am grateful to Andrea Monarda for his precise and careful analysis of my Quatro pezzi per chitarra. I am really thankful for the attention and the experience of the excellent professional who discovered the secret intentions of the composer with his sensitive interpretation” –
Ennio Morricone

Andrea Monarda started his musical studies at the age of 12 and graduated as Master of Music cum laude in both Guitar Performance and Music Education. In 2013, he produced a film based on the Sequenza XI by Luciano Berio. In 2008 he graduated as a Bachelor in the Faculty of Foreign Languages (interpretation and translation) in Trieste and recently published various articles for specialized Italian magazines, such as Il Fronimo, Guitart and Musica Domani.
He is constantly committed to commission new repertoire for guitar, co-operating with renowned international composers such as Colombo Taccani, Solbiati, Gaslini, Bosco and Levine, who dedicated to him their most recent works for guitar solo and duo, and whose works he revised for the Suvini Zerboni Publishing Company. Luis De Pablo wrote about Andrea: «J’avais rêvé une guitare “dédoublée”, c’est à dire: deux instruments (même plusiers) en un: formes d’attaque, registre, matière sonore…et le tout, évoluant en vitesse éclair: un guitarist à 20 doigts!»
Andrea has been awarded in Italian and International competitions, such as XVI Concurso Internacional de guitarra “Alirio Diaz” in Venezuela, XXX Certamen Internacional “Andrès Segovia” in Almuñecar, Spain, the Grand Prize Virtuoso International Music Competition in Great Britain, and the IV “Rocco Peruggini” National Guitar Competitionin Italy, as well as the Silver Medal at the Global Music Award, California – USA.
He recorded six albums so far with the labels Stradivarius (Dieci minuti all’alba – omaggio a Giorgio Gaslini, anthology of new music), Guitart, Dotguitar (Historical guitar music – DVD recording) Limen Music (Solbiati – solo guitar works) and MEP Music Publisher. With Guitart label, he published the album Canciones along with soprano Ludmila Ignatova, with music by Manuel De Falla and Joaquin Rodrigo.

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Ludmila Ignatova, Latvian soprano, was born in 1985. She started her musical studies at the age of six. In 2015 Ludmila graduated cum laude at “Antonio Vivaldi” Academy of Music, in Italy in the ‘Master of Music’ Program in Opera Singing. In 2013 Ludmila Ignatova graduated in solo singing at Conservatorium Maastricht, in The Netherlands as well as in Law, with lawyer qualification, at the Latvian University in Riga. Ludmila Ignatova graduated in 2011 in Vocal music at the “Jāzepa Vītola” Latvian Academy of Music.
Ludmila Ignatova took part in more than 200 concerts and Festivals in Latvia, Lithuania, Italy - in Rome, in Turin, in France – in Paris -, The Netherlands – Maastricht, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Den Haag - and Poland. In Italy, Ludmila performed at the Hall of Musical Association “Amici del Loggione del Teatro alla Scala” in Milan, as well as at the Main Hall of Museo del Novecento, the Italian Museum of Modern Art in Milan.
Ludmila interpreted the role of Zelatrice in “Suor Angelica” di Giacomo Puccini in the Festival ‘Scatola Sonora’, XVIII edition. Besides her operatic activity, Ludmila Ignatova has chamber music activity with classical guitarist Andrea Monarda, performing in Festivals such as Torino Mozart Festival and Torino Classical Music Festival. Their repertoire includes Renaissance music up to modern classical music.
In November 2008 Ludmila Ignatova has been awarded with the Diplome d’Honneur from the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Latvia and in the same year she became a Laureate of the International Poetry Competition “Holy Symbols of Russia”. Ludmila recently published her own bundles of poems “Silence of feelings” and “Sensus”.
Ludmila has been invited by “Latvijas Radio 4” Radio Programs to read poetry and to take part in interviews and talks. With Guitart label, she published the album Canciones along with guitarist Andrea Monarda, with music by Manuel De Falla and Joaquin Rodrigo.
She is Art Director of Martina Franca Chamber Music Festival.