Today we’d like to introduce you to Joseph Lu
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I was born on 04/22/1975, in Modica, Sicily, Italy. At the age of 6 I began studying the piano, immediately demonstrating great predisposition to the study of the instrument.
As a child I was considered a rebel in music, I didn’t like interpreting other composers, only F.Chopin was the composer I loved interpreting, I didn’t like being pigeonholed into schemes and studies that brought cages into me, I didn’t even like using the metronome, I loved using the internal metronome, the time set by our self. no one could understand that my refusal was due to an internal concept and a vision of music different from classical teaching, and for this reason I was isolated, as if I wasn’t suited to the piano, I often received secondary parts in essays or even as an auditor in many courses that were organised, this made me feel bad, in some moments I wondered if music wasn’t for me. However, I continued my studies, followed my instinct, looked for new paths and new teachers, I didn’t give up, as is his style, thanks also to my parents who always supported me, believing in myself, taking courage in the darkest days, when nostalgia took over, and traveling enormous distances with me even for a single lesson, in a Sicily where the possibilities were very limited and an abnormal effort was required to be able to follow one’s passions. In adulthood I began to understand that perhaps my musical being and my way of perceiving music was a new path different from the classics, in any case a new vision. I began a period of self-analysis, where I tried to understand the reasons for my thoughts and my way of seeing things, and over the years awareness took the place of unawareness. Often during long train journeys at a young age to be able to go to piano lessons, on the train where I traveled for around 16 hours, I daydreamed, or I dozed off with my head resting on the armrest of the seat of the locomotive (diesel train present in Sicily,very slow and without air conditioning), in the middle of summer or in the middle of winter, where suffering sometimes took over, and it was necessary to get up and wet your face to be able to continue the journey. This was the love of music, and it continued until he completed his 10th year of studies. When I completed my tenth year of piano, I wanted to share this achievement only with the people who supported me and believed in me until the end.
in 2006 due to economic problems in the midst of the economic crisis, not being able to support my family with music, at the time I had a 3 year old son, Salvatore, I decided to stop with music, or at least that’s what I thought, I sold everything that had a connection with it, anything, and I put my wife Maria in charge. I started working as a dishwasher in a kitchen, and as a cleaner, a job that was very dangerous for my hands, given my hands were constantly immersed in water and with a high risk of cutting myself, this however allowed me to be able to support my family for many years.In 2008 my second son Alessandro was born. This escape from music and trying not to think about music could happen during the day, at night when rationality gives way to irrationality I dreamed, and I dreamed of playing with a keyboard that I had during my career as a musician, companion to a lot of music and which I sold together with other things. I dreamed of being in front of an audience and performing melodies, I also experienced in dreams the state of mind that one experiences during a performance, I also experienced in dreams the pleasure of after the performance with the audience, this lasted for about 16 years, and for a few years I managed to write down the dreams on a moleskine so as not to forget them. In December 2021, one Sunday morning during the housework my wife Maria calls me from the bedroom, I’m on the upper floor intent on my work on the computer, I go down and join her in the room, Maria was busy cleaning the house, a wrapper comes out from under the bed with something inside, she says to me: what do we do with this? Shall we throw it away? Or take it up, I asked her what it was, and she told me to open, I opened the package and found a keyboard, that keyboard that I thought I had sold, and that for 16 years and for many nights accompanied me in my dreams, that keyboard that for 16 years she had under the bed where I slept right underneath. When he opened the package and saw that keyboard my eyes filled with tears, Maria hadn’t sold the keyboard because his instinct told him not to, he told him to keep that instrument that was so important to me. My children also came down and asked whose keyboard it was, not knowing that I was a pianist, Maria replied that it is dad’s and that dad was a pianist. They asked me to try it and see if it still worked, and they brought it up there keyboard turned on, and it worked perfectly, as soon as the hands touched the keys the connection was immediate, and as if a positive energy was activated, a sense of well-being and tranquility pervaded me, it was in that moment that I composed Pour Marie, Romance d’un amour, dedicated to Maria, the person who guarded and made Joseph reborn. In a short time those dreams became music, because Joseph doesn’t write, he brings dreams into music, through a direct process without filters, from the dream to the piano, and when I feel ready I record what the dream has transmitted to me. I often daydream, I sit at the piano and start dreaming, and the dream becomes music. In the dream there are no cages, there are no barriers, time does not exist, here is that time that Joseph did not love and does not like to follow in the metronome, the founding concept that we have an internal time and that is what must be followed, in dreams our self is free, it has no cages it follows what we are orwe want to be. In the dream you can travel through time, the clock can go forward or backward, you are free to be, you are free to express your self, in the dream we strip ourselves of our shell, of our masks, and there, we can see our true face. In the dream we are connected with the universe, through the dream the universe expresses itself, we are constantly in communication with the universe, and it gives us what we desire, through the dream the universe speaks to us, and manifests itself in everyday reality with messages that we must expertly decipher and understand in order to follow the path that leads us to the realization of our dream and of ourselves. The first city that gave me recognition was Los Angeles, the first nomination occurred at the Hollywood Independent Music Awards 2023, with the song Night in The Sky, for me it was the moment of confirmation that the artist Joseph was alive and that someone on the other side of the ocean understood, and I will never stop thanking Los Angeles and all of America for making this dream a reality. this was the first of a long series of successes, followed by the victory at the World Entertainment Awards with the song Memories in the Best Classical Composition category, in Hollywood 2024, and followed in the following years by 2 other nominations, Pour Marie, Romance d’un amour at the Hollywood Independent Music Awards 2024, and Power of Love at the World Entertainment Awards in Beverly Hills 2025. another recognition was the Caruso award in New York in 2024. a The book “IL PIANISTA DEI SOGNI” will be released in March 2025 with the attached digital album “DREAMING”, a journey through the artist and dreams.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
enormous challenges I had to face, in particular the distrust of many who believed I was finished as an artist, the people who laughed at me at the beginning are now changing their minds, in order to carry on the musical project I had to advance with my resources at slow but constant steps, never doubting, with the belief that the universe would create the right conditions but on the condition that I did not give up. After 16 years of inactivity my hands were initially stiff, but with the perseverance of study I quickly regained elasticity and technique.
My dream is to be able to live permanently in Los Angeles, a dream that will soon come true
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a Pianist Composer, I have achieved the highest level of piano studies at the conservatory, I am very proud of having managed to resume a musical path interrupted for 16 long years, I am proud of my family because they have demonstrated maturity and a spirit of sacrifice in accompanying me on this journey. One thing distinguishes me from the others, the fact that I manage to travel in a dreamlike dimension, and manage to transform everything into music.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
As a child I was solitary, I had problems relating to the outside world, already at the age of 6 I began studying piano, because my family saw that I had a predisposition. At school I had learning problems, however I was able to bridge the gap by memorizing what the teacher told me. as a child I was very attached to animals, for me they were the friends par excellence, I had no particular interests, I stayed closed studying for many hours after school, so my outings were limited to a few minutes a day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://josephlu.it/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/joseph_lu_pianist/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/?_rdr
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@josephlu9685
