Duo Acquavella are a classical duo, performing international music on mandolins and mandola. She studied under the instruction of Keith David Harris.
Christopher Acquavella is a classical mandolinist & educator from San Diego, California. He graduated First Class Honors from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance in London, England. Chris studied under the instruction of Alison Stephens and in Master Class with Caterina Lichtenberg. Chris won the Wolfsan Foundation Music Award in 2004 and was awarded the TCM Trust Silver Medal for String
Studies in 2006. Chris performs classical repertoire on baroque and modern mandolins, using period techniques. Aside from chamber music, he concertizes with various orchestras throughout the world including the Ger Mandolin Orchestra, Bach Collegium San Diego (USA) and the San Diego Symphony (USA). Chris is the artistic director of the New Expression Mandolin Orchestra, as well as the San Diego Classical Mandolin Camp. He has performed & taught workshops at the CMSA Conventions and the David Grisman/Mike Marshall Mandolin Symposium. Aside from teaching and performing on the mandolin, Chris spends time composing new works for mandolin & mandolin ensembles. Several of his works are now published by Joachim-Trekel-Musikverlag, Hamburg. Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch has been performing as a soloist and with several ensembles around the world for over 15 years. Stefanie is a member of the world music ensemble Vinorosso, and the music director of the federation of plucked-string music of the German state of Hesse (BDZ Hessen e.V.). She is a regular guest at various international courses, teaching the mandolin and the mandola as well as music history. Apart from being a classical mandolinist, Dr. Stefanie Acquavella-Rauch is a musicologist at the Musicological Seminar of the Universität Paderborn and the Hochschule für Musik Detmold, Germany.
