Ensemble - Svapinga Consort

the Ensemble

Since 2016, the Svapinga Consort has presented the Alte Musik in Schwabing concert series as well as numerous educational outreach programs in the Albert-Lempp Saal of the Kreuzkirche München-Schwabing. The series’s Musica Poetica concerts are organized in cooperation with the Historical Performance Institute of the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, and feature its talented students.

The ensemble is made up of a young and international group of musicians, alumni of select European music universities specialized in early music and historical performance practice. They are driven by a passion for diverse musical styles, profound artistic introspection, and interpretive consistency.

The ensemble is led by Sofya Gandilyan (keyboard instruments) and Maria Raffaele (oboe and recorder).

Artistic Direction

SOFYA GANDILYAN

Sofya Gandilyan is a harpsichordist, fortepianist, and PhD musicologist.
Ms. Gandilyan won 2nd place in the oldest Early Music competition, the Musica Antiqua in Brugge and an Honorary Mention Prize in the “Prague Spring” harpsichord competition. Sofya received awards from the Austria Barock Academy and Shostakovich Foundation.
Ms. Gandilyan has performed in concerts together with prominent baroque players and singers, such as C. Schornsheim, A. Steck, L. Duftschmid and J. van Elsacker. Sofya has been a harpsichordist and organist at the show „Flying Bach“. She has performed a repertoire ranging from Frescobaldi to Martinu and Nyman in various European countries, as well as in Brazil, China and USA.
In 2012 Sofya received a doctoral degree in musicology from the Moscow Conservatory with her dissertation on J.J. Froberger and his keyboard music.
Ms. Gandilyan obtained bachelor’s and a master’s degree both in harpsichord and fortepiano from the Early Music department of the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich, as well as from the Trossingen University of Music.
Sofya is currently teaching at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Munich.
Ms. Gandilyan participated in world premiere recording (CD) with motets of I. Leonarda.

Anderson Fiorelli

Brazilian cellist Anderson Fiorelli lives in Munich and teaches baroque cello at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart as well as modern cello at the Musikschule Starnberg. From the 2026/27 season he also joins Sofya Gandilyan as co-artistic director of the Svapinga Consort. He is equally at home in historical performance practice and in the modern repertoire, with a particular interest in chamber music.

As a chamber musician and soloist he performs regularly throughout Europe, with ensembles including Il Gusto Barocco, the Hofkapelle München, Capella Sollertia and Concerto München as well as Il Pomo d’Oro, the B’Rock Orchestra and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, under conductors such as Sir Simon Rattle and René Jacobs. His chamber music partners include Christine Busch, Rodolfo Richter and Daniel Müller-Schott, and he has appeared at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Tonhalle Zürich and the Cuvilliés-Theater in Munich. Since 2011 he has formed the Villa Duo with violinist Waleska Sieczkowska, performing in Germany and Brazil. The duo creates programmes combining chamber music with literature and history, and is just as committed to education and outreach with concerts for children and young audiences.

Fiorelli studied in Curitiba, Munich and Zurich, with teachers including Maria Alice Brandão, Kristin von der Goltz, Roel Dieltiens and Gaetano Nasillo. Alongside radio recordings for the German broadcasters SWR and BR, he took part in the complete recording of Johann Ludwig Bach’s cantatas with Capella Sollertia (Ricercar, 2026). As continuo partner to Daniel Müller-Schott he recorded works by Boccherini and Vivaldi (Orfeo, 2026), and Mozart arias with Il Pomo d’Oro appeared on Pentatone in 2021.