Luca Pianca was born in Lugano in 1958 and is among Switzerland’s greatest performers of early music. The lutenist was trained by Nikolaus Harnoncourt before co-founding the renowned Baroque orchestra Il Giardino Armonico (The Harmonic Garden), he has been conducting Bach’s complete Cantates at the Vienna Concert House and is collaborating with the Concentus Musicus Wien in Vienna. Luca Pianca also performs Bach and Vivaldi’s complete works for lute as a soloist. The diversity and quality of his output are also evident in his work as part of a duo with the gambist Vittorio Ghielmi, in his sensitive accompaniments (e.g. for Cecilia Bartoli) and in his excursions into rock and new music.