A versatile conductor with a passion for creating community through music, Luca Antonucci is equally at home in orchestra, opera, and new music. He has performed and assisted in the US, Europe, and Latin America, in halls such as Boston Symphony Hall, Carnegie Hall, Tanglewood, the Wiener Konzerthaus, Argentina’s Centro Cultural Kirchner, Cape Town City Hall, Soweto’s historic Regina Mundi Church, and many others.
He currently serves as the Music Director of Boston Summer Opera and Artistic Director of the Open Door Ensembles of Boston, cover conductor for the Portland Symphony (ME), and as a member of the music staff of the Berkshire Opera Festival (MA), where he is Assistant Conductor and Chorusmaster.
Recent appearances include as guest conductor with the Spectrum Orchestra in Bloomfield Hills, MI and as Assistant Conductor with The Washington Chorus on its concert tour to Buenos Aires, where he prepared the Orquesta Juvenil “San Martin”, Argentina’s premiere training orchestra, for its performances of Mendelssohn’s “Elijah” with baritone Will Liverman under the direction of Eugene Rogers.
A champion of new music and works by composers from historically underrepresented backgrounds, Antonucci has performed a number of premieres and is the founder and Artistic Director Orchestra Without Borders of Boston, which presents works by composers from around the globe in collaboration with performers from a diverse range of traditions outside of classical music. He has also served as a producer on recordings of the Michigan Orchestral Repertory Equity Initiative and conductor of the Boston Summer Singers, whose mission is to raise awareness and support for local organizations working to change systemic social issues from hunger to immigrant rights.
An experienced educator and a passionate advocate of amateur music-making, Antonucci has brought dynamic leadership to a number of collegiate and community ensembles throughout the US, including the University of Michigan Campus Orchestras, the Michigan Life Sciences and Pops Orchestras, the Manchester Symphony Orchestra and Chorale, the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra, and the Pioneer Valley Symphony, Chorale, and Youth Orchestra.
He is also a co-founder of Boston Summer Opera, whose mission is to create opportunities for young professionals and students to explore the operatic repertoire alongside established singers. An enthusiastic proponent of opera, Luca is currently a member of the music staff of the Berkshire Opera Festival, and recently served as assistant conductor at Opera in the Heights in Houston, and as assistant conductor and coach for three productions of the University of Michigan Department of Voice and Opera.
Previously, Luca was an active freelancer in Boston as a trumpeter, keyboardist, choral director, and singer, performing with the Boston Firemen’s Band, Bay Colony Brass, New England Film Orchestra, the Oberlandler Hofbrau Band, Charles River Brass Quintet, Zamir Chorale, where he served as conducting intern, and holding a series of church music positions before an injury led him to pursue conducting full-time.
Recipient of a U.S. Department of State Fulbright grant to study the life of Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna, where he published with the Journal of the Arnold Schönberg Center and studied at the University for Music and Performing Arts, Luca is the winner of numerous academic awards and a graduate of the Hartt School, the University of Michigan, and Amherst College.
In addition, he has studied at the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, including intensive study of the teachings of Nadia Boulanger, as well as the International Conductors Institute in Bacau, Romania, the Conductors Institute of South Carolina, International Conducting Workshop and Festival, the Conductors Retreat at Medomak, and the Miami Beach International Classical Music Festival, where he was awarded first prize in the annual conducting competition. He has participated in masterclasses with Benjamin Zander, Donald Schleicher, Mark Gibson, and Edward Gardner, among others.
Projects
Luca is the founder and director of the Orchestra Without Borders and the Boston Summer Singers, and was the conductor of the Manchester Symphony Orchestra and the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra from 2019-2022. He is an advocate of new music, premiering works by numerous composers in Ann Arbor, Boston, and abroad.
Previously, he was Assistant Conductor and Youth Orchestra Conductor of the Pioneer Valley Symphony, where he created a chamber music program and oversaw successful recruiting and community-outreach programs. He has appeared throughout the US and Europe in conducting masterclasses with noted teachers including Benjamin Zander, Paul Vermel, Donald Portnoy, Peter Jaffe, Diane Wittry, Kenneth Kiesler, and Neil Varon.
An enthusiastic advocate of choral music, Luca has worked in a number of church music positions, most recently as Music Director and Organist at the First Parish, Unitarian Universalist in Cohasset, MA, where his tenure included revitalizing the Children's Choir. He currently leads the Boston Summer Singers, a volunteer ensemble noted for its annual benefit concert in support of the Womens' Lunch Place of Greater Boston. He was previously a Conducting Intern for the world-renowned Zamir Chorale of Boston under Dr. Joshua Jacobson and studied choral conducting with Mallorie Chernin and David Hodgkins.
Additionally, Luca maintains an active schedule as a performer on the trumpet. Recent performances have included appearances with the University Symphony Orchestra at Michigan, the New England Film Orchestra, Bay Colony Brass, New Philharmonia Orchestra under Ken-David Masur, the DuBois Orchestra, and Amity Street and Charles River Brass Quintets. He is especially interested in improvisation, jazz, and the traditional brass band literature of Eastern Europe. From his time performing with the Musikverein Leopoldau, an award-winning wind band in Vienna, Austria, Luca was named "Musical Ambassador to the United States" and is passionate about spreading traditional Bohemian repertoire to ensembles in this country.
In addition to performing, Mr. Antonucci is a committed educator passionate about teaching music at all levels. He maintains a small private studio of conductors and trumpet players, and from 2017 to 2022, he was the Middle and Upper School Instrumental and General Music Teacher at the Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill, MA, where he led a variety of ensembles to new heights of achievement, as well as teaching classes on music theory, music history (including a popular History of Hip-Hop course), songwriting and composition. He also ran the After School Music Program. Luca was the conductor of the MMEA Western Junior District Orchestra in 2018 and is a frequent clinician at local schools. In addition, Luca is in-demand as a member of the faculty at Lasell Village in Newton, MA, where he teaches classes to residents on topics including Charles Ives, Mozart Operas, Kurt Weill, and the music of Latin America. He has worked at the Rivers Summer Music Program teaching music theory, chamber music, and wind ensemble classes.
Orchestra Without Borders Boston is an inclusive ensemble whose mission is to present music by composers from historically marginalized groups in benefit concerts to support justice, equity, and dignity for all members of the Greater Boston community. (Click on poster to learn more)
Formed as the Brookline Chamber Singers in 2016, the Boston Summer Singers is a community chamber choir performing a diverse set of repertoire in inclusive, community-serving concerts featuring guest instrumentalists. Partnerships have included the Cambridge Community Center, Women’s Lunch Place, Church of the Covenant Boston, and Lasell Village. (Click on poster to learn more)