Tres Pájaros (SI / ES)

Pilar Almalé (Zaragoza, 1993) is a Spanish viola da gamba player, singer, composer, and artistic director. She specialises in early music, blending it with jazz, flamenco, Latin American rhythms, and world music. An interdisciplinary artist, she has also studied fine arts, dance, and aesthetic theory in Spain, elsewhere in Europe, and in India. She completed her music studies in Vigo in 2019 and earned a degree in Fine Arts from the University of Seville in 2016. Almalé has performed widely in Spain and internationally, collaborating with artists such as Jordi Savall, Dulce Pontes, and Eva Yerbabuena. She plays the viola da gamba, vielle, and esraj. In 2021, her ensemble, the Pilar Almalé Quartet, released Hixa mia, which was named one of the 200 best European albums by the European World Music Chart. In 2024, she released her first solo album, Golondrinas. She is also the founder and director of FEMMAZ – the Festival of Women in Early Music, based in Zaragoza.

Urška Cvetko studied the recorder at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana and at the University of Performing Arts in Graz, before earning her Master’s degree summa cum laude at the Conservatorio “Luigi Cherubini” in Florence in the class of Prof. David Bellugi. She is a multiple prize-winner at national and international competitions (TEMSIG, Premio Claudio Abbado, TARF Israel) and continues to refine her skills through masterclasses with renowned teachers such as Dorothee Oberlinger, Walter van Hauwe, Lorenzo Cavasanti, and Pamela Thorby. She works primarily as a chamber musician, performing with ensembles including Messa di Voce, Vetrinki, Tres Pájaros, Hymnia (recipient of the Prešeren Award), and the trio Chicas del David, with which she has performed throughout Europe (including a solo recital at the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino festival). She is also active in theatre, both performing and creating original music for productions at institutions such as the Maribor Puppet Theatre, Dječje kazalište Osijek, and the House of Children and Arts.

Tea Plesničar holds a Master’s degree in harp from the Academy of Music in Ljubljana (Prof. Ruda Ravnik Kosi) and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels (Prof. Jana Boušková). She performs actively in chamber ensembles with flautist Blaž Snoj, baroque flautist Urška Cvetko, the Slovenian harp quartet SiH4rps, and others. She has appeared at festivals in Slovenia and abroad (Belgium, the Netherlands, Italy, Portugal). In Brussels, she was a member of the interdisciplinary collective Permeable, which combined music, dance, visual arts, literature, and fashion. In 2018, she co-created the project Tasting Music and Poetry with jazz pianist Anže Vrabec and premiered several of his works. In 2024, she debuted her first original composition for solo harp, Staring into the distance. Autumn. Tea is also a correspondent for the World Harp Congress Review and a dedicated music educator. Since November 2024, she has been studying baroque harp at the Civica Scuola di Musica Claudio Abbado in Milan in the class of Prof. Mara Galassi.