Violinist Luka Faulisi's New Album, "Aria"

Released on Sony Classical, Faulisi's debut album explores violin-piano arrangements of Romantic-era operatic arias

The French-Serbian-Italian violinist Luka Faulisi released his debut album, Aria — having signed with Sony Classical in 2022 at just twenty years old. The album was recorded alongside pianist Itamar Golan.

Described by Pinchas Zukerman as having a "million-dollar sound," Faulisi began learning the violin aged three. He studied with Boris Belkin at the Conservatorium Maastricht in the Netherlands and is presently working with Pavel Berman at the Academy Lorenzo Perosi in Biella, Italy.

Faulisi's debut album focuses on the great opera arias that were so integral to his early life. His Sicilian father made sure that these works were played and sung often in the family home.

These operatic selections include Franz Waxman’s Carmen Fantasy, Henryk Wieniawski's Fantasy on Themes from Gounod’s Faust, Leopold Auer's arrangement of "Lensky's Aria" from Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin and Faulisi's own arrangement of Violetta’s aria "Sempre libera" from Verdi’s La Traviata.

"In the reflection that I was carrying out in relation to my first recording, the ideas that seemed key to me were to make an original, personal album adapted to the violin and its requirements," Faulisi told The Violin Channel.

"During one summer, the concept of 'Aria' came to me while I was working on some pieces that were in fact transcriptions of operas by Leopold Auer and Efrem Zimbalist."

"For a first album, it was important for me to present myself violinistically, with virtuoso pieces such as Carmen Fantaisie, le Coq d'Or, or Faust, and also artistically, with more lyrical pieces such as Lensky's Aria, Roxanna's Song, while presenting my Italian origins and this passion for opera which was present throughout my childhood."

You can hear Faulisi play and speak about the album below.