Luciano Lamonarca

Personal life and education

Luciano Lamonarca was born on 11 August 1978 in Milan, as the second and the youngest son in a modest, southern Italian family. His family moved back to the South of Italy, in Ruvo di Puglia, in the Province of Bari, when Luciano was two. After several years of musical education in clarinet and piano he discovered his true call in life and passion for opera at 18, while listening to Mario Del Monaco’s "Un Amore Così Grande". He consistently trained his operatic voice for ten years, between 18 and 28 years old. He studied singing in Apulia, Rome, Palermo, New York, and Ferrara, with such renowned teachers as Gino Lorusso Toma, Carmen Sensaud, Franco Corelli, Salvatore Fisichella, Roberto Scandiuzzi and Daniele Barioni. In 2005 his mother and his greatest supporter, Anna De Nicolo, lost her battle with cancer. Losing that strong connection with his family, Luciano decided to take a greater journey outside Italy. In 2008 he moved to the United States. He resides in New York.

Artistic accomplishments

Lamonarca was the special performing guest tenor at the 10th Commemoration of the attack on the Twin Towers, which took place in Westchester County (New York), with a live transmission by NEWS 12. In November 2011, he was the main performer at the concert "United Academia", for the celebration of the 1st anniversary of the United Nations Academic Impact.

In two consecutive years, 2011 and 2012, he was invited to perform as a special performing guest at the prestigious New York Fashion Week at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel, in Manhattan.

He performed at Lincoln Center at the New York Theatre for Performing Arts, in October 2010, and at Carnegie Hall in December 2010.

In December 2010 and in January 2011, he held two concerts in Milwaukee, paying tribute to the great tenor Mario Lanza in commemoration of his 50th anniversary.

In January 2009, he performed at the Great Hall of the Palace National Philharmonic Orchestra, in Minsk, Belarus, and in December 2008, at the prestigious Palais Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, Austria. His concerts in Italy include performances at the auditorium La Vallisain Bari and at the Teatro Politeama in Palermo, accompanied by the orchestra "Ersu" from Catania. In Germany, he performed at the Fourth edition of the "Europaishes Jugend Musik Festival" in Passau, in a concert entirely dedicated to Giuseppe Verdi.

He was the youngest opera singer to perform at the United Nations in New York, where in 2007, shortly after the concert by Ennio Morricone, he was invited as the sole representative of Italy, in the concert "United We Are Peace", that took place at the prestigious Dag Hammarskjold Auditorium, invited by the Zaraspe Foundation. The following year, on April 25, 2008, he was invited again at the United Nations, to represent Europe in a concert held in the General Assembly, where he sang in the presence of ambassadors and delegations, the President of the 62nd Session of the General Assembly, H.E. Mr. Srgjan Kerim, and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. Having achieved international success, he was later invited to perform with I Solisti del Teatro Regio di Parma at the "Public Service Awards Ceremony", organized by the Department of Public Administration of the United Nations. On April 22, 2008, he was invited as a tenor soloist to perform at the opening ceremony of the worldwide premiere of the movie "Carnera – The Walking Mountain", that took place at the Madison Square Garden in New York, where guests of honor were the American actor Burt Young and the Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham.

Albums and Digital projects

In March 2009 Luciano Lamonarca released his first album entitled "Mamma", dedicated to his dear mother and launched in a press conference in New York.

In January 2012, he released his new Album "The Impossible Dream", an outstanding compilation of Italian operatic arias and American pop-operatic hits, made in partnership with The New York Choral Society.

In October of the same year, he realized, with the approval of the famous stage director Giancarlo Del Monaco, the online music project "Ricordando Mario Del Monaco", as a tribute to the legendary Tenor Mario Del Monaco.

Media credits

Luciano Lamonarca was interviewed by numerous television networks such as Rai Uno, Rai Tre, Rai International, Tele Norba and TGS Sicily. Articles about him were published in Daily News, New York Post, The Italian Times, The Italian Tribune, The Italia Magazine (in Russian), La Repubblica, America Oggi, Il Quotidiano.Net, Il Corriere del Mezzogiorno, La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno and Il Giornale di Sicilia.

Public recognition

Luciano Lamonarca received a Proclamation for artistic merit from the Westchester County Executive, Hon. Rob Astorino, on October 7, 2013, and from the New York State Comptroller, Hon. Thomas DiNapoli, on October 24, 2013.

Philanthropy and the symbolic title "The Goodwill Tenor"

Because of his involvement in numerous charitable causes and his commitment to making art with a purpose, Luciano Lamonarca was nicknamed the Goodwill Tenor. Part of the proceeds from the sales of his first album "Mamma" was donated to the "City of Hope" in Zambia, a missionary project by Salesian Nuns, helping orphan girls and girls victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence.

With the Album "The Impossible Dream", he donated part of the proceeds from each downloaded song to the Mini Maestros Program. This program enables New York City public school students and their parents to attend New York Choral Society performances at Carnegie Hall at no cost.

He initiated, organized and performed in the project "United for Abruzzo", an artistic tour of Manhattan, Staten Island and Pennsylvania with the goal of raising funds for the victims of the earthquake in Abruzzo in 2009. In the spring of 2011 he introduced two very important philanthropic projects. First, "An Evening of Italian Opera Arias" was a gift of voice for cancer patients, families and friends, a show of support for Musculoskeletal Cancer Research at Wintergarden, Morgan Stanley Children's Hospital, at Columbia University Medical Center. The second was the Concert "Luciano Lamonarca and Friends", in April 2011, at Victor Borge Hall at the Scandinavia House, with the Peace Trio and Pianist Asami Tamura, to benefit the Wyckoff Heights Medical Center.

Luciano Lamonarca authored and executed numerous other artistic-philanthropic projects to benefit orphans and poor from various communities in the United States, and is a proud supporter of charity and Catholic organizations.

Puglia Center of America

In November 2009, moved by his passion for his homeland, Apulia, Luciano Lamonarca founded the Puglia Center of America, a premiere organization for the promotion of the Apulia region of Italy in all its aspects, especially through the creation and exchanges of cultural, tourist and educational assets between the Apulia region of Italy and the United States. Other goals and projects include the support of global social objectives, as well as missionary and humanitarian projects aimed at fighting cancer.

Through the Puglia Center of America, Luciano authored and organized in December 2010 the concert "United for Peace", at Carnegie Hall, as a tribute to the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations and the United Nations Logistics Base located in Brindisi, Apulia.

The Puglia Center of America was co-signatory and facilitator of a joint declaration between the Westchester County Government and the Province of Bari, and between the State of Connecticut and the Province of Bari.

Among other civil society projects related to the United Nations, the organization sponsored also the project "United Academia", an initiative that had the goal to create international partnerships in the academic field, and extend access and membership to the United Nations Academic Impact. Through this initiative, three academic institutions from Apulia and three from the US joined UNAI - Fordham University, Hofstra University and the John D. Calandra Italian American Institute; University "Aldo Moro" of Bari, Politecnico of Bari and the University of Salento of Lecce.

Hollywood actor Joe Mantegna and actor and UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Lino Banfi, from Italy, became Advocates of the Puglia Center of America.

Saint Pio Foundation

Luciano Lamonarca is a Catholic who has lent his personal support to promoting charitable causes in US, Europe and in the Caribbean Islands. Because of his devotion to Padre Pio, he assumed the role of President and CEO of the Saint Pio Foundation, a non-profit charity organization dedicated to the promotion of the spiritual charisma of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina.