Ensemble Seraphim

Raffaella Bortolini is a specialist of historical wind instruments. After her bachelor in baroque oboe with Paolo Faldi in Vicenza, she earned a Master in historical performance practice with Ann-Kathrin Brüggemann in Freiburg im Breisgau and continued her studies with Katharina Arfken in Basel. She studied recorder for many years with Sergio Balestracci, Lorenzo Cavasanti and Corina Marti specialising in renaissance and baroque repertoire. In 2015 she achieved a Master in shawm and medieval music with Ian Harrison at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. She is now a Ph.D student in musicology at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
Raffaella regularly performs in orchestras and chamber groups in Europe and Asia. She is the artistic director of Ensemble Seraphim, dedicated to the performance of medieval and early renaissance music.

Rachel Heymans studied recorder in Brussels, Berlin and Basel. Interested in different repertoires and styles, she discovered and studied the music for recorders from the Middle-Ages to contemporary music with Frédéric de Roos, Laura Pok, Tomma Wessel, Gerd Lünenbürger, Antonio Politano and Corina Marti as teachers. During her recorder studies in the Middle-ages department of the Schola Cantorum, she discovers the Shawm and the impressive sound of Alta Capella with Ian Harrison. In love with the sound of the baroque oboe, she starts later to learn how to play this instrument with Katahrina Arfken, Ann-Kathryn Brüggemann and Benoit Laurent. She was lucky enough to participate and learn in masterclasses with Concerto Köln, the Freiburger Baroque Orchestra, and under L.G. Alarcon or V. Luks conducting.
She plays Oboe and Recorder in different orchestras, as well as in chamber music and solo recitals.

Daniel Serafini was born in Luxembourg and studied Trombone at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester (BMus Hons.) and the Royal College of Music in London (MMus). He earned a specialised Master in historical performance at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (MASpam) focusing on historical Trombones and Slide Trumpet. His interests in contemporary music and education lead Daniel to undertake a Master in pedagogy at the Hochschule für Musik in Basel, specialising in the contemporary repertoire for the trombone. Daniel has performed with many of the leading period performances groups in the UK and in Europe including the Freiburger Barock Orchester (D), Wratislavii Cantans (PL) and the Gabrieli Consort (UK). His keen interested in contemporary music has also led to exciting collaborations, most notably a new composition for sackbut by Fabrice Fitch, Agricola IXb, which was premiered at the National Gallery in London.

Bénédicte Wodey studied recorder and oboe at the Conservatoire in Colmar (FR). She then continued her path at the Conservatoire de Règion de Strasbourg, where she started the study of the baroque oboe and of the renaissance double reed instruments.
From 2010 to 2016 Bénédicte studied at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis (CH) where she obtained a pedagogical master in recorder in the class of Conrad Steinmann and a master in historical performance practice with the baroque oboe, under the guidance of Katharina Arfken.
Bénédicte plays in several music ensembles such as Le Parlement de Musique, la Martinella, Stella Matutina, Novantik, Académie Bach d'Aix-en Provence, I Pizzicanti, Svapinga Consort and others. She is also teaching recorder and oboe in Switzerland.