About us

Flam-a Duo is a percussion duo created in 2016, while Francesco Mazzoleni (Treviso, Italy) and Luis Camacho Montealegre (Alcázar de San Juan, Spain) crossed their paths on their Master Degree studies in Zagreb Music Academy, under the mentorship of professors Igor Lešnik and Ivana Kuljerić Bilić. From the beginning, one of the main characteristics of the duo has been their communication, both with each other and with the audience.

Using musical performance as a means of storytelling, Flam-a leans on brilliant intuition that is based on a strong emotional connection with the selected repertoire. For the duo, the essence of chamber music is to achieve the maximum possible synergy between performers and, in doing so, to investigate together all the elements that shape the music: from organizing and expanding the repertoire of the percussion duo to breaking down and analyzing music, sound and movement to the realization and transmission of ideas and emotions during the performance.

Prizes and performances

Already from its creation, the duo has performed at important festivals throughout Europe: Ivana Bilić Marimba Week (Samobor, Croatia), Salotto Musicale (Treviso/Belluno, Italy) International Percussion Ensemble Week (Bjelovar, Croatia) and Percussion Camp (Tenerife, Spain), Keiko Abe Lausanne International Marimba Academy (Lausanne, Switzerland), Arte Entre Gigantes (Campo de Criptana, Spain).

The duo has performed on the occasion of the European project – 2018 Birthday of Art, with a live broadcast of Croatian Radio in the EBU network. Flam-a Duo started principally focusing on marimba repertoire and has won two second prizes: Percute Chamber Music Competition in 2016 and the Universal Marimba Competition in 2017. Later on the duo widened their style including all types of percussion, currently focusing on marimba and vibraphone.

They have premiered several Croatian pieces written specially for the duo and have inaugurated the newly opened Zagreb Music Academy recording studio. In 2020, they released in YouTube their recording session “Sunday at Soundbrick Studio” in which they featured some of their newest arrangements for marimba and vibraphone among classics for the same instruments’ set. In the spring of 2022 the duo’s debut album titled “Preludes and fugues” was released by the renowned record company Croatia records.