Biography

Luca Lombardi, born in Rome in 1945, must be considered an important and prominent representative of Italian music of his generation. During the past forty years his creativity has been shaped by a continual process of searching, questioning and renewal. By addressing the social and political issues of his time, his oeuvre is pervaded by a kind of humanism that makes him a worthy successor to his colleagues Luigi Dallapiccola and Luigi Nono. His works (150 thus far) show mastery in handling diverse stylistic elements, whereby the musical language results largely from the tasks and the themes confronted by the composer; it ranges from expressive cantilenas, violent outbursts, meditative contemplation to alienation and deconstruction, and constantly there are flashes of wit and irony.
Lombardi attended the German gymnasium in Rome and, since the mid-1960s, has been a wanderer and mediator between German and Italian culture. His composition teachers included Armando Renzi and Roberto Lupi in Rome and Florence, Karl Schiske in Vienna, as well as Bernd Alois Zimmermann and Vinko Globokar in Cologne. He participated in Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Cologne Courses for New Music, studied electronic music in Cologne and Utrecht, and later became master student of Paul Dessau in Berlin. In 1975 he earned his doctorate with a dissertation about the music of Hanns Eisler. Since 1973 he taught composition: until 1978 at the Conservatory in Pesaro, then until 1993 at the Conservatory in Milan. Lombardi is the author of numerous essays and several books on musical and philosophical issues; he has been invited to lecture and teach courses in Europe, Japan, as well as North and South America. As fellow and artist in residence at various Advanced Studies Institutes (Berlin Wissenschaftskolleg, Künstlerhof Schreyahn, Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg Delmenhorst) he spent extensive time living in Germany. He received numerous awards and recognitions, including the Italian Goffredo Petrassi Price in 2006.
Lombardi’s compositions have been published by Moeck, Suvini Zerboni, Ricordi and RAI Trade and include three opera (Faust, un travestimento, based on a libretto by E. Sanguineti after Goethe’s Faust I; Dmitri oder der Künstler und die Macht, based on a libretto by H.-K. Jungheinrich, and Prospero, based on a libretto by F. C. Delius and L. Lombardi after Shakespeare’s Tempest), three symphonies, numerous oratorios and orchestral works, as well as chamber music in cycles (Sisyphos I, II and III) and varied ensembles. Among his compositions are many vocal works. Most of his compositions were commissioned by music festivals, radio stations, opera houses, including IRCAM (Paris), West German Radio Cologne, Saarländischer Rundfunk, Radio DDR (Berlin), RAI Rome, Radio della Svizzera Italiana Lugano, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin, Musikbiennale Berlin, Kölnmusik, Frankfurter Feste, Wiener Festwochen, Rikskonserter Stockholm, Opernhaus Basel, Oper Leipzig, Staatstheater Nürnberg.
Luca Lombardi lives near Rome overlooking Lake Albano.

Michael Kurtz