The Arparla ensemble takes inspiration from a desire to speak through music - parla in Italian means ‘speak’. The Monti and Cleary duo give concerts with energy and enthusiasm, receiving excellent reviews from all over the world, bringing a musical message that goes beyond language, culture, and social class.
Their repertoire focuses on two specific musical periods in which their instruments perfectly express the synthesis of the Baroque period, and the transition period between Classicism and Romanticism.
Formed in 2005, Arparla has performed many concerts - not only in Italy, their inspiration and home, but around the world. The duo’s first tour was in Japan, where they also gave masterclasses in Early Music and Historical Performance Practice.
Arparla has performed in festivals like Aqua Music Amsterdam, Itinéraire Baroque Perigord, the Early Music Festival in Brugges, Rethymno Renaissance Festival, the International Mozart Festival Rovereto, Mazovie Goes Baroque Warsaw and Muzyka w Raju Paradyz. They have also performed at the Montreal Early Music Festival. They toured Australia and Singapore in 2011, including a performance at the launch of the Woodend Winter Arts Festival in Victoria.
In 2009 they premiered Spohr's Double Concerto on original instruments.
Arparla has also given series of concerts and lessons in Kampala, Uganda, to sustain the NGO COOPI, performing for the Italian and Irish Embassies, Makerere University, The International University of Kampala, and the Africa Institute of Music.
Besides performing, the duo has taught at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, the Guildhall School of Music in London, the Conservatories of Padova and Vicenza, NUS Singapore, RMIT and Monash UNI in Melbourne, the Griffith Conservatory in Brisbane, the Kraków Music Academy, the Conservatory in Vienna, and also collaborated with the Menuhin Foundation MUS-E project.
Arparla has recorded two CDs under the Stradivarius label. The first, So mach' die Augen zu is of the Chamber works and harp solos of Louis Spohr. Their second CD, Le Grazie del Violino, is a collection of Italian instrumental music of the 17th century including Marini, Pandolfi-Mealli, Selma, Uccellini, Frescobaldi, Merula and Fontana. This recording culminates many years of research into performance expressiveness, effects and musical rhetoric. These CDs has received rave reviews from international music journals.