Tuesday, 30 January, 2024 - 12:56

Robert Lucaciu

Robert Lucaciu (1988) is a double bass player, teacher and composer.

Robert Lucaciu began his musical training at the age of 7, initially on the violoncello. He gained his first experience with improvised music and jazz as a teenager in the State Youth Jazz Orchestra of Saxony. This led the then 15-year-old to enrol in the young talent class at the Leipzig University of Music. There he studied jazz music with Prof. Pepe Berns, Prof. Richie Beirach, Prof. Werner Neumann (among others) and classical double bass with Thomas Stahr.
After completing his diploma at the HMT Leipzig, Robert Lucaciu was a student in Prof. Thomas Zoller's composition class at the HfM Dresden for 1.5 years.
Workshops and private lessons with US bassist Mark Dresser were particularly influential for him.
Robert Lucaciu's artistic output is extremely heterogeneous. He has worked for various theaters as a composer, stage musician and performer as well as a music teacher, concert organizer, label operator and program curator.
His musical range is also eclectic. In addition to contemporary jazz, he also plays classical music from the 20th and 21st centuries as well as experimental and freely improvised music. Together with the French DJ Kangding Ray and the Scottish musician Barry Burns (Mogwai), he created a symbiosis of electronic and post-rock in the SUMS project for the Berlin Atonal festival. Together with guitarist Arne Jansen and drummer Moritz Baumgärtner, he developed a collaboration with the Orchestra Baobab from Senegal. In Romania, he was able to work together with the respected singer Maria Raducanu and the German drummer Michael Griener.
The musical work of percussionist Philipp Scholz and Robert Lucaciu has been closely interwoven since 2006. They form a team in many different band projects and develop their own independent music. Since 2009, the focus of this work has been the trio PLOT with saxophonist Sebastian Wehle, which has released 3 albums. TogetherwithsaxophonistHaydenChisholmandpianistJürgenFriedrich,Scholz/LucaciuformthebandNautilus.
With monaxia, Robert Lucaciu released a solo program for the first time in 2015. Solo playing with double bass and cello, sometimes with electronic alienation, is the workshop and nucleus of his artistic approach. A second digital release solo live at kulturnhalle leipzig appeared in 2021.
After taking an artistic break in 2018, Robert Lucaciu is providing new impetus in terms of art and content. His most recent project Fallen Crooner deserves a special mention here. In this sextet, consisting of musicians from Cologne and Berlin, he explores images of masculinity.
With her feminist project Aint' I, WDR Jazz Prize winner Theresia Philipp also relies on collaboration with Robert Lucaciu. Together with his brothers Antonio and Simon Lucaciu, Robert Lucaciu plays in the new quartet of GDR drumming legend Günter Baby Sommer. The recently recorded album will be released on the renowned Swiss label Intakt.
As an active member of the young German jazz scene, Robert Lucaciu's contributions can be heard on over 20 albums. In 2016, he was awarded the Leipzig Jazz Young Talent Prize, one of many scholarships and prizes in Robert's vita (Young Munich Jazz Prize, Echo Jazz, scholarship holder of the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony, scholarship holder of the Hans & Eugenia Jütting Foundation, Kathrin Prize Darmstadt ...). Concert tours have taken him to over 30 countries and all continents.