Biography
MARIA LUC / 2022
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Described as 'a pianist destined to achieve great things'*, Maria Luc is a British Pianist of Japanese and Vietnamese Heritage based in Manchester with local roots in Chichester, West Sussex. Maria has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in venues across the U.K., Europe and the U.S.A. She is the winner of the international piano competition, Norah Sande Award 2017, RNCM Concerto Prize 2020 and RNCM Chopin Prize 2020. She was awarded the Polonsky Foundation Fellowship enabling her to travel and attend the Aspen Summer Music Festival in America in 2022. Maria has frequently been a concerto soloist with orchestras such as Liverpool Mozart Orchestra, Nottingham Helix Ensemble, Chichester Symphony Orchestra and the Athenean Ensemble. She is also an enthusiastic chamber musician whose collaborations with various instrumentalists won the Barbirolli Prize for Cello and Piano 2019 and Paganini Prize for Violin and Piano 2016. She frequently plays with Wyn Chan and Imy Luc in a piano duo. Maria composes and arranges her own works for various festivals and also enjoys working with living composers, working with George Benjamin and Erollyn Wallen which culminated in performances at the Wigmore Hall. An experienced concert organiser, she frequently promotes her own concerts and enjoys designing and programming. She is a current Talent Unlimited Artist. Maria is ever grateful for the generous support to nurture her playing. The National Grant Award/Music and Dance Scheme Grant sponsored her studies at GSMD (Mark Fielding) and Chetham's (Masayuki Tayama). The Countess of Munster Musical Trust, Help Musicians UK, Headley Trust Bursary, Dorothy Stone Award, and the Margaret Allen Piano Award sponsored her studies at the RNCM (Kathy Stott, Ron Abramski, Graham Scott, Ashley Wass and Helen Krizos). She has also been invited to play in masterclasses for Sir András Schiff, Stephen Hough, Jerome Lowenthal, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet amongst many others. Maria follows a vegan lifestyle to drastically reduce environmental impact, health problems and harm to animals. She has a keen interest in the animal rights movement and enjoys all things creative, cooking vegan cuisine, cycling and reading. Maria, along with her two siblings was raised in an eclectic and frugal household, fusing Japanese and Vietnamese cultures along with British customs. Her father was a refugee, who fled the Vietnam War after being blinded by a bomb in his village as a child and found a new life in the U.K and became a piano tuner and technician. Her father enjoyed collecting strange keyboard instruments that would have otherwise gone to waste. Some of her earliest musical memories were sitting on her father’s lap whilst he pedalled pianolas. She now aspires to be a film director but still keeps playing and teaching. She is a staff member of Yorkshire Young Musicians alongside her private teaching practice and has also taught in the U.S.A at the Aspen Summer Music Festival. *Darlington and Stockton Times ©2022 |
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