Short Bio
Luca Lombardi, Italian composer, born December 24, 1945 in Rome. He studied piano and composition in Rome, Florence, Vienna, Cologne and Berlin, among others with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernd-Alois Zimmermann and Paul Dessau. He earned a PhD in German Language and Literature at Rome University. From 1973 to 1993 he taught composition at the Conservatories of Pesaro and Milan.
He wrote more than 160 compositions, including four operas (Faust. Un travestimento, 1991; Dmitri oder der Künstler und die Macht, 2000; Prospero, 2006; Il Re nudo, 2009), music for orchestra (among which Terra, 2007 and Mare, 2012), chamber music (among which Warum? Secondo quartetto per archi, 2006) and for solo instruments (among which Nel vento, con Ariel for flute, 2004).
He is a member of the Academy of Arts, Berlin and of the Bavarian Academy of fine Arts, Munich. He is co-author of a treatise on orchestration (Instrumentation in der Musik des XX. Jahrhunderts, Celle, Germany, 1985). A selection of his writings was published in the book Construction of Freedom and other Writings (in English, with in an appendix the originals in German and Italian), edited by Juergen Thym (Baden-Baden, 2006).
Over the years he reached a more and more accomplished synthesis of his different musical experiences, with a particular reference to the music of the great tradition: from Beethoven to Stravinskij, Bartók and Shostakovich and, as for the opera, to Rossini, Verdi and Puccini – however never from a nostalgic and retrospective position, but from an absolutely contemporary one.
He lives partly in Marino (Rome) and partly in Tel Aviv.
Portrait (Gabriele Becheri, 2009)
Of few composers can it be said that their creative life mirrors the evolution of such a complex and articulated period as the 20th century, with its confusion of diverse styles and techniques in all the arts, including music. Luca Lombardi (Rome, 1945) is one of those few, his musical language being strongly characteristic of and entirely immersed in our contemporary culture.
From the very beginning, Lombardi had a passion for Stravinskij and Bartók. He studied composition in Rome, Vienna and Florence with Armando Renzi, Karl Schiske, Roberto Lupi and Boris Porena (under the latter he graduated from the Conservatoire of Pesaro in 1970). Between 1968 and 1972 Lombardi made his first contact with the avant-garde movement, especially through Karlheinz Stockhausen, Bernd-Alois Zimmermann, Henri Pousseur, Mauricio Kagel, Frederic Rzewski, Dieter Schnebel and Vinko Globokar, all of whom he studied with in Cologne. During these years, Lombardi’s strong interest in politically committed music brought him into contact with Hanns Eisler and Paul Dessau. He wrote his degree thesis on Eisler (University of Rome, 1975, tutors: Paolo Chiarini and Fedele d’Amico) and studied with Dessau in Berlin, where he had moved to prepare his thesis. Both Eisler and Dessau had worked with Bertolt Brecht and represented alternative and complementary models for the composer to the already existing avant-garde movement. Years later (in 1982) Lombardi explained this coexistence of different styles in his Catalogo through the concepts of “ex-clusive” (the possibility of creating complex forms from very reduced materials) and “inclusive” (the willingness to include multiple musical “behaviours”). In 1973 Lombardi began teaching composition at the Conservatoire of Pesaro. From 1978 until 1993 he taught at the Conservatory of Music of Milan, after which he decided to become a full-time composer.
Lombardi’s frequent travels for lectures and seminars have taken him throughout Europe, to the United States and Canada, to Latin America and to Japan. He has written numerous compositions commissioned by important Italian and foreign institutions, amongst which are Ircam (Paris), WDR (Cologne), Rikskonserter (Stockholm), Radio-Sinfonie-Orchester (Berlin), Musikbiennale (Berlin), Rai (Rom and Turin), Radio della Svizzera Italiana (Lugano), Basler Theater (Basel), KölnMusik (Cologne), Saarländischer Rundfunk (Saarbrücken), Hindemith-Institut (Frankfurt/Main), Frankfurt Feste (Frankfurt/Main), Wiener Festwochen (Vienna), Oper Leipzig (Leipzig), ORT-Orchestra della Toscana (Florence), Essener Philharmonie (Essen), Rudolf-Steiner-Archiv (Dornach, Switzerland), Staatstheater Nürnberg (Nuremberg), the Rome Opera House and the Scala in Milan. In 1988-89 he was a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin and in 1998-99 and 2003-04 at Delmenhorst. He has received many prizes and awards amongst which are the “Goffredo Petrassi” Prize in 2006. He is a member of the “Akademie der Künste” in Berlin. His Catalogo have been published by Schirmer, Moeck Suvini-Zerboni and Ricordi, and currently by Rai Trade. Many of his writings are brought together in the volume Construction of Freedom and Other Writings, edited by Jürgen Thym (Baden-Baden, Valentin Koerner Verlag, 2006). He is coauthor, together with Walter Gieseler and Rolf-Dieter Weyer, of the book on orchestration Instrumentation in der Musik des 20. Jahrhunderts. Akustik. Instrumente. Zusammenwirken (Celle, Moeck Verlag, 1985).
Although his Catalogo include a vast list of solo, chamber and orchestral music, Lombardi has become increasingly drawn towards opera, beginning in the mid-1980s. In 1986-1990 he wrote Faust. Un travestimento, which reflects the many stylistic peculiarities inherent in his Catalogo together with a now effortless mastery of expressive means and a remarkable theatrical instinct. In this opera, with the contribution of Edoardo Sanguineti’s libretto, we find a continuous alternating of serious and comical elements, unconventional quotation and drama. He went on to write three more operas: Dmitri oder der Künstler und die Macht (1994-99), Prospero (2005-2006) and Il re nudo (2007-2008), the first true comic opera of Luca Lombardi. Over the years, Lombardi has progressively synthesized his many different musical experiences, yet with a pronounced reference to the great tradition of music: from Beethoven (for Lombardi the most “human” of the great composers of the past) to Stravinskij, Bartók and Šostakovič and, as far as the opera is concerned, to Rossini, Verdi and Puccini – however, never from a nostalgic or retrospective point of view but firmly rooted in contemporary culture.
He lives partly in Marino (Rome) and partly in Tel Aviv.
— Gabriele Becheri
Portrait (Michael Kurtz, 2006)
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 Dallapiccola and Nono. His Catalogo (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 Schreyan, 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—libretto: E. Sanguineti after Goethe’s Faust I, Dmitri oder der Künstler und die Macht—libretto: H.-K. Jungheinrich, and Prospero—libretto F. C. Delius and L. Lombardi after Shakespeare’s Tempest), three symphonies, numerous oratorios and orchestral Catalogo, as well as chamber music in cycles (Sisyphus) and varied ensembles. Among his compositions are many vocal Catalogo. 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.
He lives partly in Marino (Rome) and partly in Tel Aviv.
— Michael Kurtz
