Biography
Trained under the guidance of Maria Tipo, Andrea Lucchesini gained international recognition at a very young age after winning the “Dino Ciani” International Competition at Teatro alla Scala in Milan. Since then, he has performed on the world’s leading stages with major orchestras and distinguished conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Semyon Bychkov, Roberto Abbado, Riccardo Chailly, Dennis Russell Davies, Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Daniel Harding, Vladimir Jurowski, Gianandrea Noseda, Franz Welser-Möst, and Giuseppe Sinopoli.
His artistic activity, marked by a constant curiosity and openness to all musical languages, ranges from the classical repertoire to contemporary works. In 1994, he received the Accademia Chigiana International Prize—the only Italian to be so honored—and the following year, the F. Abbiati Prize from Italian critics.
Lucchesini has made numerous recordings since the 1980s for labels such as EMI International (Liszt, Beethoven, and Chopin) and Teldec, where he recorded Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and Berg’s Chamber Concerto with the Dresden Staatskapelle under Sinopoli. For BMG, he recorded Luciano Berio’s Concerto Echoing Curves, conducted by the composer himself, marking the start of a close artistic collaboration. Lucchesini premiered Berio’s final piano work, Sonata, in 2001, later recording it—together with all of Berio’s piano compositions—for AVIE Records, earning unanimous international acclaim.
His live recording of Beethoven’s complete 32 piano sonatas for Stradivarius has been highly praised by major musical publications. In recent years, Lucchesini has devoted himself enthusiastically to the music of Franz Schubert, beginning with the Impromptus (AVIE Records). Since 2018, he has collaborated with the German label AUDITE, releasing Dialogues—featuring works by Berio, Scarlatti, Schubert, and Widmann—and three albums dedicated to Schubert’s late piano music, all of which have received top ratings from BBC Music Magazine, Fonoforum, Pizzicato, and Crescendo Magazine.
Deeply convinced that sharing musical knowledge with younger generations is a moral duty, Lucchesini combines his performing career with an intense teaching activity. He teaches at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole, where he served as Artistic Director from 2008 to 2016, and gives masterclasses at prestigious European and American institutions such as the Musikhochschule Hannover, the Mozarteum Salzburg, and in New York.
He has served on the juries of numerous international piano competitions and, in 2008, was appointed Academician of Santa Cecilia. From 2018 to 2021, he was Artistic Director of the Accademia Filarmonica Romana, and since the 2022–2023 season, he has held the same position at Amici della Musica di Firenze.
