Paola Fre graduated with full marks from the Milan Conservatory in 1982, mentored by Glauco Cambursano. From 1982 to 1984 she studied at the Geneva National Conservatory of Music in Maxence Larrieu’s class, where she won the Prix de Virtuosité. She has attended postgraduate courses with Alain Marion, Aurèle Nicolet and James Galway. She has won prizes at the Stresa, Como and Manta competitions. She has played as a soloist with Milan’s Pomeriggi Musicali Orchestra, the strings of the Teatro della Scala, the Padua and Veneto Orchestra. She collaborates with other orchestras as well: RAI in Milan and Turin, Santa Cecilia in Rome, Pomeriggi Musicali, Milano Classica, Cantelli, Stabile di Bergamo, Internazionale d‘Italia, Radio Svizzera Italiana, Parma’s Toscanini Orchestra and Toscanini Philharmonic Orchestra, Virtuosi Italiani, the Padua and Veneto chamber orchestra, the Chamber ensemble of the Teatro Alla Scala, Teatro Alla Scala, and Alla Scala Philharmonic Orchestra. She plays chamber music with the Ensemble Garbarino, Cremona’s Musica Insieme, Carme, Nuove Sincronie and, in the last ten years, with Filippo Del Corno and Carlo Boccadoro’s Sentieri selvaggi and Antonio Ballista’s Novecento e Oltre. In 1985 she founded the group Entr’Acte. She has recorded for Radio Televisione Italiana and Radio Televisione Svizzera, Stradivarius, Sensible Records, Cantaloupe, Rai Trade, Bottega Discantica. Since 2001 she has taught the flute at the officially recognized Institute "Franco Vittadini" in Pavia. Since 2000 she has taught sight reading at the Bertinoro summer courses.