Giovanna Pessi was inspired to study historic harp performance by the harp she began using when she was 13: a 1800 Erard instrument. Educated in Den Haag, at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis, and with Rolf Lislevand at Staatliche Hochschule für Musik Trossingen, she has performed and recorded with several early music ensembles throughout Europe. She also spent a few years with the Christian Wallumrød Ensemble, incorporating the sound of the Baroque harp with new music. This led to the first of her own recording projects for ECM, If Grief Could Wait, featuring Pessi, Marco Ambrosini and Jane Achtman accompanying Susanna Wallumrød in a mix of songs by Henry Purcell, Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake, and Wallumrød herself.