Luca Zucchi

Luca Zucchi is a London-based singer and composer currently studying for a PhD in composition at the Royal Academy of Music (RAM). Taught by tenor Adrian Thompson, Luca has a particularly strong interest in Lieder, regularly performing songs and cycles by Schubert, Schumann, Mahler and Wolf alongside works by living composers. In 2024, he performed a new stage-adaptation of Schubert’s ‘Winterreise’ at Pentameters theatre in London and most recently performed Schumann’s ‘Liederkreis’ Op.24 alongside Robin Holloway’s partnering ‘Fantasy Pieces’ for chamber orchestra. Over the past couple of years, Luca has received coaching and teaching from Julius Drake, Andrew West, Nicholas Mulroy and Richard Stokes.

As a composer, Luca’s work has been performed by a number of leading musicians including conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, The Hermes Experiment, The Choir of Clare College, Riot Ensemble, Orpheus Sinfonia and CHROMA. Recent compositions include Fairer Westminster for brass quintet, commissioned by the Lord Mayor of Westminster on behalf of the council, and Drop, Drop, Slow Tears for choir, recorded by the Choir of Clare College to be released on their forthcoming album with Signum Records. Luca received a distinction (DipRAM) from the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) for his MA in Composition and was awarded the Composition Postgraduate Prize and The Jane Manning and Anthony Payne Award. He is currently taught by composers Helen Grime and Philip Cashian and has received teaching from other leading composers including Hans Abrahamsen (1952-), Robin Holloway (1943-), Nico Muhly (1981-), Huw Watkins (1976-) and Ryan Wigglesworth (1979-). Luca’s current studies are supported by the Countess of Munster Musical Trust and a scholarship from RAM. Before studying at the Academy, he read music at Cambridge, graduating in 2024 with an honorary scholarship to the university as well as the Lester Brough Performance Prize and the Royalton Kisch Prize for the highest academic grade for music in his college.

In 2023 Luca founded Isokon Ensemble, a group committed to innovative programming and performances that bring theatre, art and music together. As part of this, Luca has conducted staged performances of Purcell’s (1659-1695) Dido and Aeneas (1689), Britten’s (1913-1976) Curlew River (1964), Nyman’s (1944-) The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat (1986) and sung in a staged reimagining of Schubert’s Winterreise (1828) performed alongside Beckett’s (1906-1989) play That Time (1975). The group has received a significant grant from The Marchus Trust to put on the first UK-staging of Gerald Barry’s (1952-) one-woman opera La Plus Forte (2006), which Luca will conduct alongside his own new orchestral work ‘Andate a Rotolare Tra i Porci - Hommage à Gerald Barry’ in March.