Every so often MT poses 60 questions to a local or visiting artist in Toronto who has made our classical music community that much more interesting. They pick and choose. The minimum response is 20 answers. A kind of Rorschach personality test, if you will.

Pianist Luca Buratto rose to fame quickly after a surprise win at the 2015 Honens International Piano Competition in Calgary.

He took inspiration from Italian tennis player Roberta Vinci’s upset over Serena Williams at the U.S. Open just hours before his Honens win. “There are many similarities between the psyches of tennis players and pianists ” he says, referring to David Foster Wallace’s epic novel, Infinite Jest.

Before that, Buratto was awarded third prize at the International Robert Schumann Competition (Zwickau) and the special ‘Acerbi’ prize, awarded to a distinguished Finalist at Milan’s Shura Cherkassky Competition, both in 2012.

His debut studio recording of works by Schumann will be released on the Hyperion label in April and is available to pre-order on iTunes.

Buratto will be in Toronto on April 22 and 23, to perform as soloist with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra at Roy Thomson Hall. Full details here.

Name the musical equivalent to junk food

Franz Liszt, you like it, but you need it just once in a while

Default drink of choice?

Mango juice

Name your favourite concert hall anywhere

Teatro alla Scala, Milan

The historical personalities, both good and bad, that fascinate you the most?

Richard Feynman and the Borgia family

If you could board a plane this afternoon, where would it be taking you?

Iceland

The three books that you read that made an impact on you in your formative years?

1. Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
2. Pynchon, Mason&Dixon
3. F. Wallace, Infinite Jest

Where was the last place you traveled to for work or pleasure?

New York

What is your biggest phobia?

Losing curiosity

Where did you go to school?

Milan, Liceo Berchet

Shoe of choice?

Nike sneakers

The different career path that you could have gone on?

Physicist

Your ancestry?

Mom was born in Brazil, from Italian parents. Dad is Italian.

Television show that you could tolerate re-runs of?

Masterchef

Your major character flaw?

Overthinking

The character flaw in others that you can’t abide?

Not being on top of things and not being honest

How do you know when you can trust someone?

You just feel it. I have a lot of trust issues!

What is the best thing about your work?

Travel

What is the worst thing about your work?

The gap between how fast the mental (musical) choices can be made and how slow the hands are in order to get to that point

The relatively normal piece of clothing that you believe you’d look the most ridiculous in?

Anything white (especially jeans)

The talent that you wish you possessed?

Writing or Federer’s

What sport did you give up and why?

Soccer, because I had to take Conservatory classes

What is the one animal that scares you the most?

Snakes!!!

Your favourite word?

Paloma

Your favourite curse word?

Fanculo (we are a colourful people!)

The strangest road you’ve ever travelled?

In the Oman desert

Three pieces, songs, or arias that you could listen to on repeat for an hour?

1. Strauss Oboe concerto
2. Schumann Frauenliebe Und-Leb Op. 42
3. Mozart Don Giovanni last scene

To read more from our Q&A Series, click HERE.

#LUDWIGVAN

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