Ornella was born in Bari, southern Italy, in 1980.
She began her training in making and repairing stringed instruments in 2005, after a degree in painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bari.
Her first teacher was her father ARTURO CECI, a very well-known violin maker, piano tuner and restorer in Bari.
After a few years of working in her hometown as an instrument maker, including the restoration of string instruments and bows, she decided in 2014 to broaden her knowledge in Northern Italy, where she followed stages in Turin and Milan at the workshop of maker and restorer Igor Moroder.
In 2015 she got a chance for an internship in the workshop of violin maker and restorer Guust Francois in Amsterdam. Here she made her first "Dutch" instrument, a viola 42cm body lenght.
In April 2017 and later in october 2022 she took two course in the restoration of string instruments organized by the British Violin Making Association - BVMA under the supervision of top restorers Warren Bealy, Iris Carr, Almuth MacWilliams.
In 2017/2018 she started further training at violin maker Bas Maas to refine her set-up and new construction techniques. In Maas' workshop she worked together with colleagues who helped improve her knowledge, such as master Roberto Furnari (restorer and expert in dendrochronological analysis of stringed instruments) and Lambert Houniet (violin maker and restorer).
In 2018 she started further training in bow making and restoration at Michael Yeats in Amsterdam. In 2019 Ornella started her own studio in Amsterdam and built various violins and violas, which are already very popular in Italy.
Since May 2022, she has established her studio at Strijkinstrumentenshop.nl at Prins Mauritsplein 19 in The Hague.
Ornella was recently appointed curator in Italy by the heirs of Lorenzo Stelluto to bring to life the extensive violin/viola collection of Lorenzo Stelluto, which had been "untouched" for more than 60 years! Maintenance and furnishing of the collection is the first step of a major project to restore Stelluto's work.
