Angélica Salvi is a Spanish harpist and composer who has been based in Porto since 2011. She boasts a bright and extensive artistic career during which she worked with composers like Takayuki Ray, Joseph Waters, Heiner Goebbels, Stephen Andrew Taylor and also improvising musicians such as Butch Morris, Evan Parker, Joëlle Léandre and Han Bennink.

After finishing her initial musical studies at the Conservatory of Music of Salamanca, Angélica moved to Madrid to continue her studies at the Royal Conservatory under the direction of Maria Rosa Calvo-Manzano, where she graduated with great honor. After obtaining the ”Extraordinary Graduation Award”, she decided to take on a new challenge that would further expand her studies. The destination was the University of Arizona (United States) with the Jazz harpist Carrol McLaughlin and after that the Conservatory of Music in The Hague (Netherlands) where she finished two master’s degrees, specializing in improvisation, contemporary music and electroacoustics, all under Ernestine Stoop’s and Anne La Berge’s directions.

As a professional harpist, she collaborated on countless occasions with various symphony orchestras and ensembles such as RTVE (Radio Television Spanish Orchestra), Philharmonic Orchestra of Madrid, University Symphony Orchestra of Arizona, Casa da Música Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Model 62 (The Hague), Brokkenfabriek (Amsterdam), Dutch Impro Academy (Amsterdam) and Insomnia Ensemble (Utrecht), touring countries such as Spain, United States, Iceland, Mexico, Brazil, Holland, Italy and Portugal.

Over the course of the past 10 years, she has immersed herself in the world of jazz, pop, rock and electronics, collaborating with bands like The Pyramids, Joshua Abrams, Prin la lá, Três Tristes Tigres and artists like Lula Pena, Lafawndah, Moullinex, Rafael Toral and André Gonçalves. Angélica has also been part of multiple projects in the field of experimental music, dance, visual arts and theatre, organized by groups such as Sonoscopia, Balleteatro, Oficina Arara, Crónica Electrónica, Teatro do Frio, Teatro do Ferro and JACC ao Centro. She is currently the harpist of the contemporary music ensemble Vertixe Sonora and the main harp teacher at the Conservatory of Music of Porto. Founding member of FMFX (Female Effects Collective), Angélica has created multidisciplinary projects such as Harpoemacto, Nooito, “Transcendecia and Delirium” and Invisible Landscapes.

PHANTONE is her first solo album based on harp and electronics, released by Lovers and Lollypops. This later work was ranked by Time Out magazine as the third 2019’s best album, one of the top 20 national albums of the same year by “Community of Culture and Art”, one of the best albums recorded in 2019 according to “Antena 3/RTP” and one of the 2019’s featured albums of the newspaper “Ípsilon”.

“Salvi (…) creating a base for a beautiful atmosphere and intensifying it, full of irregular, repetitive, unfolding motives, she thereafter distinguished herself as a solo artist: as an impressionist or even, imagine, like a distorted rock guitar. Halfway she approached a certain orientalism or the universe of Takemitsu. Between scattered notes and heavy glissandi, she would finally conclude with a gentle repetitive note.” (concert review of Joëlle Léandre X 5, in Serralves) Jazz.pt

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