Born in Parma in 1969, he started to play the cello at 17 after having studied violin, guitar and piano. He began to play in orchestras at the age of 18. After covering the role of principal cello in some Italian orchestras such as “Toscanini” in Parma, “Bellini Theater” in Catania and “Orchestra stabile” in Bergamo, in 1999 he won the position of Principal Cello in “Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano G. Verdi”, with Riccardo Chailly as a Musical Director.

This job was the starting point of a lot of professional experiences, and the opportunity to work with important musicians such as Rudolf Brasai, George Prétre, Sara Mingardo, Vladimir Jurowsky, Elene Grimaud, Sir Charles Mc Erras. At the same time he carried out activities of Principal Cello in the “Scottish Chamber Orchestra” in Edinburgh, the “Royal Philharmonic of Flanders” in Antwerp, and in “Operanorth” in Leeds.

 

In 2004 Luca Franzetti started his collaboration with Claudio Abbado taking part in his last creation: “The Orchestra Mozart” in Bologna, and later becoming a member of “Lucerne Festival orchestra”; the partnership with these two orchestras is still going on at present.

In 2009 Abbado invited him to teach in the famous “El Sistema” of José Antonio Abreu in Caracas, a project for children at the Venezuelan Barrios.

From that moment his life changed, spiritually and musically. He started humanitarian projects teaching music in places where arts and culture are really needed, sometimes changing human lives. So, for the last five years he has been teaching in Palestine, (all through the West Bank) to bring music to refugee camps.

For the future he’s going to spread this activity to South Africa, in the towsnships of Soweto, Capetown, and in South America (Guatemala and Paraguay).

 

At the moment his activity is mainly as a soloist. Regularly he performs recitals and plays as a soloist with prestigious orchestras in Italy, Switzerland, Norway and Japan.

 

Using the baroque cello he performs regularly with “Silete Venti!”, with whom he recorded a CD for Sony Classical.