The Duo Marchio (voice and guitar) was formed in Cape Town where Uliano was born and where Marisa, born near Bari (Italy), emigrated to with her parents.

Their repertoire consists of songs, mainly classical, from the 16th century to the 20th century, from Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria and England including composers like Bach, Scarlatti, Schubert, Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini, Tosti, Granados, Britten, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Klatzow and others.

Marisa studied singing with Fred Dalberg, for many years leading bass at Bayreuth and Leipzig and resident bass at Covent Garden, Flora Nielsen at the Royal Academy and André Turp, for many years resident tenor at Covent Garden. Uliano studied the guitar privately in London and Barcelona, subsequently obtaining L.T.C.L. Performers’ and Teachers’ Diploma.

The husband and wife team performed extensively in South Africa, in concert, radio and television. Apart from their activity as a duo, Marisa sang leading roles in various theatres, as well as Oratorio. Uliano appeared regularly as soloist with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra and other orchestras. For many years he formed a flute and guitar duo with Hungarian flautist Eva Tamassy. He taught the guitar at the South African College of Music (U.C.T) and was examiner for the University of South Africa.

Moving to Rome, the Duo Marchio continued its activity at international level. Uliano taught in various Italian Conservatories including ‘Santa Cecilia’ in Rome and Marisa at the ‘Tito Schipa’ Conservatorio in Lecce. Both of them participated on the juries of National and International Competitions e.g. the “Mauro Giuliani” International Competition held annually in Bari.

On occasion they have both featured as soloists on the same programme e.g. in 1989 with the Lambeth Orchestra (London) under the direction of Christopher Fifield where Marisa sang the Vier Letzte Lieder by Richard Strauss and Uliano played Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez.

1990 saw the duo in Baghdad for the second time together with Italian conductor Renato Palumbo, at the piano, as part of the Italian Foreign Ministry’s contribution to the European Cultural Festival held there. In 1989 Marisa was awarded the Targa d’Oro Omaggio a Mario del Monaco” for singing, and in 1992 she made her debut as an actress at the Todi Festival and shared with the other two protagonists the Italian theatrical award “La Maschera con Lauro d’Oro”.

Various composers have written for the duo – Carl Van Wyk, Carlo Carfagna, Robert Fokkens, the brilliant young Italian composer Francesco Antonioni and Peter Klatzow, one of South Africa’s foremost composers. Marisa was invited to give the first performance of Persichini’s Stabat Mater which was broadcast from Vatican Radio and “Summer Songs” for voice and strings by Francesco Antonioni.

She has sung leading roles in The Barber of Seville, La Traviata, La Bohème, Madama Butterfly, Otello, Suor Angelica, L’Amico Fritz, Susana’s Secret, Il Campanello and other operas under conductors including Franco Ferraris, Bryan Balkwill, Renato Palumbo, Christopher Fifield, Avi Ostrovsky, Ottavio Ziino, David Tidboald.

Uliano has played the Fantasia Para un Gentilhombre and Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo, the Concerto in D by Castelnuovo-Tedesco, the Concerto in A op. 30 by Giuliani, the Concierto del Sur by Ponce and two Concertos by Vivaldi under conductors including Enrique Garcia Asensio, Hugo Rignold, Erich Bergel, Janos Furst, Peter Perret, Werner Andreas Albert, Christof Escher and Christopher Fifield.

The Duo returned to South Africa where it continues its activities in both performance and teaching.