Luca Turchet, ITALY - DB66 • the Mandolin Tuner

Luca Turchet, sound designer, musician, composer and writer, was born in Verona on the 28th of October 1982. Luca Turchet is currently a researcher at the Center for Digital Music of Queen Mary University of London, researching the design of novel musical instruments. As Luca is a mandolin player, he has developed also a novel concept of mandolin!

Biography

At the age of 9 he began studying music under the direction of the master Augusto Cesare De Mori (at that time, eighty-two years old) who taught him classical guitar, mandolin and mandola, and made him exhibit as a youngster in numerous concerts, both as soloist and in different chamber ensembles (duo and trio of classical guitars, orchestra of mandolins, guitars and accordions) with which he won some competitions (Voghera, Erbezzo).

At the age of 18 he entered the Conservatory of Music of Verona, graduating with top grades and honours in classical guitar. As a soloist in classical guitar he won first prize in competitions such as Val Tidone, Cogoleto, Rivarolo Canavese.

He graduated with top grades and the honours in composition (specialization in electronic music) at Conservatory of Music of Verona. Thanks to the win of a grant of the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs he had the possibility to study composition and electronic music in Ireland, at the Cork Institute of Technology/School of Music.

Subsequently, he graduated in Electronic Music at the Royal College of Music of Stockholm, with a thesis on the so-called “augmented instruments”.

His passion for music brought him to different musical genres in addition to classical music, such as traditional and medieval music, as well as to particular instruments such as the bagpipe and the hurdy-gurdy.

He has performed several concerts throughout Europe both as a soloist and with different ensembles. The works he has composed have been performed in Italy, Denmark, France, Sweden and Ireland.

For four years he has been artistic director of the cultural association “Gruppo Etnico-Musicale dei Panganoti Cimbri” of Verona and he is currently the president of the youth association “Novallys” which deals with the rediscovery and promotion of European traditional music and dance. In addition, he is a member of the Danish association “Dronemusik Danmark” which deals with the Scandinavian musical traditions, with particular emphasis on the drone instruments. Furthermore, he has worked as a background actor at the theatre foundation “Fondazione Arena di Verona”, taking part in four lyrical seasons in the amphitheatre Arena and in the theatre Filarmonico of Verona.

He is author of the book “Folk Soul”, which aims to presents several aspects of the European folk music and dances, as well as to convey their cultural richness and beauty, through the story of autobiographical experiences and travels.

In parallel to his musical studies, after focusing on humanities in high school, he first achieved a bachelor of science in “Multimedial Information Technology” and subsequently a master of science in “Multimedial and Intelligent Systems” at the computer science department of the University of Verona, graduating in both with top grades and honours. Furthermore, he received the Ph.D. in “Sonic Interaction Design” and “Multisensory Integration” at the Media Technology Department of the Aalborg University Copenhagen, where he still works as post-doctoral research scientist, thanks to a grant from the Danish Research Council. Presently his scientific research is focusing on the interactive simulation of human locomotion both at auditory and haptic level.

Finally, he is among the founders of Mind Music Labs, company based in Stockholm which produces smart musical instruments.