Luca Franzetti

While still young, he rose to the highest levels by holding the position of principal cello in Italy then abroad.

He collaborated with foremost conductors Riccardo Chailly, Sir Charles Mackerras, John Eliot Gardiner, Trevor Pinnock, Andris Nelsons, Oleg Caetani and, for a good ten years, with Claudio Abbado.

He also performed with musicians of totally different genres, namely Herbie Hancock, Stewart Copeland, Goran Bregović, Enzo Jannacci and Lucio Dalla. After Riccardo Chailly‘s “Orchestra Verdi” he went on to perform with the “Scottish Chamber Orchestra”, the “Royal Flanders Philharmonic”, Leeds’s “OperaNorth”, as well as the “Mahler Chamber Orchestra” and the “Lucerne Festival Orchestra”.

With Claudio Abbado a relationship beyond the professional sphere came into being, thus Luca was invited to attend the famous “Sistema” by José Antonio Abreu in Caracas, Venezuela. From that moment onwards, Luca’s vision of the world, of life itself, radically changed: his soloist career unfolded along with the dissemination of music aimed at the defense of human rights. This led him to play and teach in Palestinian refugee camps, including twice in the Gaza Strip.

A musician certainly belonging to the classical world, and at the same time very concentrated upon the present and looking towards the future. Definitely not to be labeled as conventional.

On July 19th, 2022, Luca Franzetti was invited to play J. S. Bach’s Six Suites for Cello Solo in Via d’Amelio, Palermo (Sicily) in front of a huge crowd, commemorating the thirtieth anniversary of the vile murder of judges Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, whose courageous fight against the mafia led to their untimely death. This was a three-hour “one-man-show” that spread the message: music and culture are the only treatments, the “weapons of mass construction” that may oppose the evil of the world such as: war, mafia, drought, climate change…

Luca gives many recitals and solo performances in Italy and abroad, all characterized by a single motto: “Music is not Wine, Music is Water”.