Gianluca Luisi

Though he received his first piano lessons at the age of six, Gianluca Luisi does not belong to those pianists who were already out in the limelight since their early childhood. Gianluca was given time enough to refine his remarkable skills calmly which is reflected in his brilliant and warm but always unobtrusive playing. After gradually gaining a tremendous experience as a performer and a remarkable number of appearances in major concert halls, he finally made his debut at New York’s Carnegie Weill Recital Hall in 2007 in front of an enthralled audience and the New York Concert Reviews, who said: “Luisi’s piano playing was astonishing in presentation. He is a very strong and imaginative artist, an excellent pianist who deserves world recognition.”

Gianluca Luisi studied with Franco Scala at the Imola Piano Academy and with Aldo Ciccolini in Paris and in Naples. He was awarded several Gold and Silver Medals at various music competitions like the “Gioventù musicale d’Italia” where he was the only soloist chosen from the Jeunesse Musicales of Italy, the “Torneo Internazionale di Musica International Music Competition” in Rome, the “Caltanissetta Bellini International Piano Competition” in Sicily, the “Casella International Piano Competition” in Naples and the “J. S. Bach International Piano Competition” Saarbrücken/Würzburg, Germany.

So far Luisi performed in Austria, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Switzerland, in the United Kingdom and the United States, Japan as well as in his native Italy in prestigious concert venues including the Vienna Musikverein, the Liederhalle in Stuttgart, the Auditorium di Milano, the Teatro San Carlo in Naples, the Teatro Bellini in Catania, the Purcell Room at Royal Albert Hall in London, the Carnegie Hall in New York, the Bauman Auditorium in Portland and the Nagoya, Chubu and Kasugay Concert Halls in Japan. Furthermore he has been on stage at renowned festivals such as the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Bachfest Leipzig, the European Music Festival Stuttgart, the Bach Festival in Köthen, the Bachtage Potsdam, the Saarland Music Festival and the Serate Musicali in Milan.

Gianluca Luisi has also teamed up with a number of conductors and orchestras; among them: Alun Francis, Enrico Belli, David Crescenzi, the German Chamber Orchestra Frankfurt (Deutsches Kammerorchester Frankfurt), the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestra del San Carlo di Napoli, the Orchestra Sinfonica Siciliana, the Orchestra Sinfonica Rossini di Pesaro and the Orchestra Filarmonica Marchigiana. Over and above his activities as a soloist he has established firm chamber music partnerships with violinist Marco Rogliano as well as with the Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt and the Chantily Quintet.

Gianluca Luisi has recorded for the Naxos, the MDG and the Centaur Records labels. Forthcoming recording projects will include both Piano Concerti by Frédéric Chopin in the version for piano and string quintet with the Ensemble Concertant Frankfurt for the MDG label, ‘Years of Pilgrimage’ by Franz Liszt for Centaur Records as well as a CD with violinist Marco Rogliano featuring the Sonatas of Austrian/German composer Ludwig Thuille on the occasion of his 150th birthday (coming in 2011 for Naxos).

Gianluca Luisi is particularly fond of playing the entire keyboard music by Johann Sebastian Bach. More recently he has done the entire cycle of the ‘Well Tempered Clavier’ in two nights from memory.

Recently in the Italian newsmagazine for Pianists “Suonare news”, the Great Pianist Aldo Ciccolini wrote: “Gianluca Luisi is one of the most interesting Italian pianist at moment”.

Gianluca Luisi is a Boesendorfer artist.