Luca Buratto, Piano

Biography

Luca Buratto, 2015 Honens Prize Laureate, is a pianist of “fiery imagination and finesse” (Musical America).

In addition to his success at Canada’s Honens Piano Competition, Mr. Buratto was awarded third prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition (Zwickau) and the special ‘Acerbi’ prize, awarded to a distinguished Finalist at Milan’s Shura Cherkassky Competition, both in 2012. He took inspiration from Italian tennis player Roberta Vinci’s upset over Serena Williams at the U.S. Open just hours before his Honens win. “There are many similarities between the psyches of tennis players and pianists,” he says, referring to David Foster Wallace’s epic novel, Infinite Jest.

Luca Buratto first caught the public’s attention at the Conservatory of Milan’s Sala Verdi where, for a Holocaust Remembrance Day event in 2003, he performed music of Renzo Massarani, his great grandfather. Massarani (1898–1975), a student of Ottorino Respighi, was a promising young composer whose career was interrupted by the imposition of racial laws in 1938. “My great-grandfather had to stop writing music because he was Jewish,” says Buratto. “And in Italy before World War II, his music was banned. Though he survived the war and the persecution, he decided to stop writing music because he was disgusted with mankind.” Massarani became a music reviewer in Rio de Janeiro. “This has been a big influence on me. I don’t feel a sense of responsibility, but I understand that music can be very powerful.

Recent and upcoming orchestral engagements include performances at Milan’s La Scala with Orchestra Sinfonica Giuseppe Verdi and with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. Earlier this year, Mr. Buratto performed for the Progetto Martha Argerich at the Lugano Festival (Swit­zerland), Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival (Canada), Busoni Festival (Italy) and was a resident artist at Marlboro Music Festival (USA). He has been featured on several national radio broadcasts, and in 2017, he gives his Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall recital debuts. A live recording of his performances from the 2015 Honens Piano Com­petition is available on the Honens label, and his debut studio recording of works by Schumann will be released on the Hyperion label in 2017.

Mr. Buratto earned his piano Diploma from Milan Conservatory and his Master’s from Bolzano Conservatory, followed by a Master of Advanced Studies from the Conservatory of Lugano. His teachers have included Fabio Bidini, Davide Cabassi, William Grant Naboré and Edda Ponti.