Concert Season Artists 2023

Born in San Giovanni Rotondo in 1993, Christian De Luca’s musical journey took him from a small Apulian town on the  Gargano coast –where he grew up and had his first piano lesson at the age of eight– to the cosmopolitan New York City, where  he moved to at the age of twenty after having been accepted by the famous Julliard School of Music. 

Prior to his experience in America, Christian trained in Italy. At the age of 17 he made his debut with the “U. Giordano  Conservatory” Symphony Orchestra in Foggia, performing Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1. The following year, he graduated from  the same conservatory with honors, under the guidance of Claudio Trovajoli. It was there that a few later Christian discovered  the world of historical keyboards after getting his hands on a newly arrived Viennese fortepiano from Mozart’s era. It was love  at “first touch” which endured even after moving overseas. In the aforementioned years, Christian performed in many prestigious Italian concert halls and distinguished himself in numerous piano competitions. Among these, he was awarded an  honorable mention at the 9th edition of the “Premio Nazionale delle Arti” –a competition that brings together the best pianists  from conservatories around Italy. He was also declared the winner of the International Competition for Piano and Orchestra  “Città di Cantù”, during its 24th edition, after competing in the Romantic Concerti category. On that occasion, Christian also won  the Audience Award and was praised for his “perfect state of grace” and for the “great passion” with which he faced “the  fearsome variations from Franz Liszt’s ‘Totentanz’” during the competition’s final round with the Bacau Philharmonic Orchestra,  thus proving to be “the competition’s only authentic success” (La provincial di Como). 

In 2014, after a highly selective process, Christian enrolled in The Juilliard School of Music in New York, where he earned his master’s degree in Piano Performance in 2018 under the tutelage of Julian Martin and Matti Raekallio. During his studies in  America, he continued to pursue his interest in historical instruments with great enthusiasm by taking fortepiano and  harpsichord lessons with Audrey Axinn, Robert Levin, and Peter Sykes. Having acquired the skills to play different keyboard  instruments, he chose to use a harpsichord and a fortepiano, in addition to modern piano, during his graduation recital. This  allowed him to experiment with switching keyboards during a concert, according to the different time periods of the repertoire  chosen for the evening. He became the first Julliard student to take such an initiative, which helped him shape his career as a “versatile keyboard player”. While at Juilliard, Christian was a Secondary Piano Teaching Fellow of the Keyboard Skills  Department, and worked as Teaching Assistant for Dr. Steven Laitz, the head of the Music Theory and Analysis department. Currently, he continues to collaborate with The Juilliard School through remote teaching activities. 

In the summer of 2018, he won the “1st Early Piano Competition” in Berkeley, California. Soon after, he was selected as  the only fortepiano apprentice to participate in the prestigious Valley of The Moon Music Festival. Held every year in Sonoma,  California, it is renowned for being the only music festival in the United States to focus on performing chamber music from the  classical and romantic periods on historical instruments. Since then, he has returned there as a laureate artist to perform  regularly, both as a soloist and chamber musician. On September 26th of the same year, Christian made his debut at the Alice  Tully Hall in Lincoln Center, New York, with the American Classical Orchestra, performing Mozart’s famous piano concerto in C  Major K467 “Elvira Madigan”, on fortepiano. Before his performance, the conductor invited him to explain the audience the  peculiarities of the historical instruments he was to play, thus enabling a better listening experience. 

In the spring of 2020, Christian moved back to Italy. A few months later, he settled in Rome, where he kept pursuing his concert and teaching career. In December of the same year, he was hired by the “Aeroporti di Roma” company to produce a  striking and unprecedented short film: a piano performance in the middle of a runway at Fiumicino airport. The video’s purpose  was to share a message of hope in the difficult time of the pandemic: ‘we will be flying again soon’. 

In the fall of 2022, Christian enrolled in the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome to study chamber music with  violinist, Ivan Rabaglia. 

As of recently, he was offered a teaching position at his old school in Italy, the “U. Giordano” Conservatory, which he  gladly accepted. Therefore, starting from February 2023, Christian has been teaching piano at the Conservatory’s headquarters in Rodi Garganico (FG).  

In addition to concertizing and teaching, Christian is a strong and passionate advocate for the arts. Therefore, he often  performs in “unconventional” settings, where he would enrich his audience’s listening experience through contextualized spoken introductions, and sometimes even reciting poetic verses reflecting the music he would perform.