Luciano Sgrizzi

Luciano Sgrizzi (30 October 1910 – 11 September 1994) was an Italian harpsichordist, organist, pianist and composer.

Life and career

Luciano Sgrizzi was born in Bologna, from whose Philharmonic Academy he graduated as a pianist in 1923. He toured South America for three years, then returned to Italy to continue his organ and composition studies. He gained a second piano diploma in 1931 from the Conservatory of Parma. Not wanting to be associated with the Fascist regime, he left Italy and studied musicology and composition with Albert Bertelin in Paris.

He settled in Switzerland, where he remained throughout the Second World War, working as pianist and organist for Swiss-Italian Radio in Lugano (with which he worked until 1974), and also as a literary critic, writing plays and arranging literary works for the radio. In 1946 he became interested in the harpsichord, and devoted himself thereafter to the study of early music. He performed with the Società Cameristica di Lugano from 1950-60. Salzburg, Ascona, Stresa, Spoleto, Rome, Milan, Paris, Liege, Flanders and Geneva were some of the festivals where he appeared as harpsichordist or pianist.