Soprano, violin and harp: that's Gilu.
Maria Portela Larisch, Veronique De Raedemaeker and Mathilde Wauters found each other in a shared love for chamber music and fascination for poetry and started playing together, embracing their unusual instrumental setting. This has brought the trio to write their own arrangements of works close to their hearts and tailor them to a perfect fit for Gilu's instrumentation.
Gilu, a young ensemble founded in 2021, aims to stay connected to today's society and its dilemmas. The sung poetry enables them to bring their message closer to the audience, and while having a special interest for 20th-century and contemporary music, they also perform music of other eras. Inviting different art forms to their unique combination of sound colours, they like to stretch the boundaries of the classical concert format.
Each of the three young women received the highest distinctions in their field and have also won prizes in national and international competitions. Originally based in Belgium, they have studied in Belgium, France and Germany. The soprano's Portuguese origins makes Gilu a real European trio that enjoys being on the road working everywhere in between these places.
In 2022 the trio released the CD 'Garland — Songs for Soprano, Violin and Harp' on Etcetera Records. Their repertoire includes works by Britten, Haydn, Rimsky-Korsakov, as well as premieres of new compositions by De Gheselle, Letelier and Cánovas i Parés.
Gilu is a poem by Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger. She describes the dance Gilu — the Hebrew word means: be happy, rejoice!