About us
We are Stephanie, soprano, and Edoardo, pianist, Switzerland-based but originally from Turin. We met in a “History of Music” course at our city's conservatory. Despite following different career paths, our shared ideas always brought us to work together.
For some time now, we have focused on the vocal chamber repertoire, particularly by lesser-known composers whose music can still resonate today. Our name “Acaja” takes inspiration from an ancient branch of the royal family “Savoia” and honors our Piedmontese roots.
Stephanie van der Goes is an Italian-Dutch lyric soprano, originally from Turin. Her vocal training was predominantly oriented toward the operatic repertoire. In recent years, she has increasingly focused her artistic activity on chamber music.
Her artistic path began at the Conservatory of Turin and was subsequently refined through private studies in the Netherlands and Germany. She developed a repertoire centered on Italian opera, with a particular focus on Late Romantic and Verismo works, performing roles such as Liù (Turandot), Mimì (La Bohème), and Frasquita (Carmen).
She has worked with theaters and festivals in Italy, Spain, and France, including Sicilia Classica Festival, Festival dei Teatri di Pietra, and Opera2001, with whom she toured in France and Spain.
She has also attended voice and acting masterclasses with various coaches, including the soprano Barbara Frittoli, deepening the stylistic and interpretative aspects of the repertoire. She is currently engaged in vocal projects and recitals that allow her to explore new repertoire and further develop her artistic expression.
Edoardo Milanello is a pianist from Turin who lives in Basel. He is mainly active in the field of vocal chamber music and contemporary music and also has a broad knowledge of improvisation and historical keyboard instruments. He has played for the composers David Lang and Enno Poppe and has worked with Marcus Weiss, Mike Svoboda, Alexander Gabrys and Andrea Neumann. He has also collaborated several times with the Catalan soprano Maria Pujades Seguí, a duo that has received numerous commissions for new music.
Edoardo Milanello has performed in France, Denmark, Germany and Austria and plays regularly in Switzerland, Spain and Italy. In 2021, he won a scholarship for LIEDBasel, a festival focusing on vocal chamber music with masterclasses, lectures and concerts.
His studies include two master's degrees at the Music Academy in Basel with Ronald Brautigam and Filippo Gamba as well as for chamber music with Jan Schultsz, Anton Kernjak, Tobias Schabenberger and Sarah Maria Sun. The master classes he attended over the years with Dominique Merlet and Robert Levin were also of particular importance to his training.