Valentina Scheldhofen Ciardelli is an Italian-German double bassist and composer with an international career spanning classical, contemporary, and jazz music. She has performed as a soloist with "I Solisti Veneti" under Maestro Claudio Scimone and won the prestigious Proliber scholarship. Valentina has appeared in renowned concert halls such as Wigmore Hall and St. Martin in the Fields in London and was invited to the pre-opening of the 2018 Zappanale Festival in Hamburg, where she performed with her trio alongside saxophone virtuoso Napoleon Murphy Brock.
As a composer, Valentina has received commissions from institutions like the Agnelli Foundation in Turin and Italian Cultural Institutes in Washington DC, Hannover, and Stuttgart. She also won a research scholarship from Animando to explore the music of Giacomo Puccini's ancestors, with her work being published by the Japanese press Da Vinci. In November 2019, she debuted her first solo album, Music from the Sphinx, and has since released four albums as a soloist and chamber musician.
Valentina's compositional work focuses on expanding the solo repertoire of the double bass by creating virtuosic new works and transcribing Frank Zappa's music. She also performs new compositions written specifically for her by contemporary composers. Currently based in London, Valentina is a professor of double bass at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance and has significant experience in jazz, having performed at major jazz festivals such as the Dusseldorf Jazz Marathon, Villa Celimontana Jazz Festival, and Umbria Jazz Clinics. She has been a finalist in competitions like Tuscia Jazz and the Nicola Tiberio Awards.
Valentina studied double bass with Leon Bosch, graduating with honors from the L. Boccherini Institute in Lucca and the Royal College of Music in London. She has won scholarships from the Chigiana Academy and international awards, including the RCM Double Bass Competition and Vernon Elliot Double Bass Competition. Recently, she secured a composer residency at the Visby International Composers Centre in Gotland for December 2024.
