Luca, Sergiu
Described in the Washington Post as a “a fiddler´s fiddler,” he is a concert personality who has enjoyed a worldwide career. He combines an unparalleled diversity of repertoire with inspired virtuosity as a soloist with orchestras and in annual recitals at major music centers around the world. A native of Rumania, Luca made his debut with Israel´s Haifa Symphony at the age of nine. Following his studies in England and Switzerland, he came to the United States to study with the legendary pedagogue Ivan Galamian at the Curtis Institute. Soon after his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1965, he was chosen by Leonard Bernstein to play the Sibelius Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic for a special CBS television network tribute to the Finnish composer. He has subsequently performed with many of the world´s leading orchestras in Europe, Israel, Latin America, and the U.S., including the Cleveland, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, Atlanta, and National Symphony Orchestras and the Israel Philharmonic, New Philharmonia of London, and the Zurich Tonhall Orchestra.
Sergiu Luca´s many recordings attest to his sensitivity for varied styles and periods of music. He made a sensation with his recordings of the complete unaccompanied works of J.S. Bach, the first rendering on an original instrument. Subsequent recordings of music by Bartók, Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Tartini, Janacek, and William Bolcom, as well as orchestral recordings with Leonard Slatkin and the St. Louis Symphony and David Zinman and the Rochester Philharmonic, earned international acclaim. As a recitalist, Sergiu Luca has performed in Europe, Mexico, Japan, and throughout North America. He has collaborated with such keyboard artists as Emanuel Ax, Albert Fuller, Anne Epperson, Joseph Kalichstein, Peter Serkin, and Malcolm Bilson. He is the Dorothy Richard Starling Professor of Violin at the Shepherd School of Music.
