About Us
Founded in 2018 and incorporated into a 501c(3) nonprofit in 2023, Open Door Ensembles of Boston is dedicated to sharing the joy of music and supporting equity and dignity for all members of the Greater Boston Community.
With the Orchestra Without Borders and the Boston Summer Singers, Open Door Ensembles of Boston is dedicated to advancing equity, justice, and high living standards for all members of our community. We highlight community organizations through our benefit concerts and feature works by composers from a wide variety of backgrounds, including those traditionally underrepresented in Classical music.
The mission of Open Door Ensembles of Boston (ODE) is to create inclusive, engaging musical performances to benefit local communities and spread the joy of music. Our choral and instrumental concerts are built on a diverse repertoire, drawing connections between cultures through the performing arts.
Find out more about the Orchestra Without Borders at https://www.orchestrawithoutborders.org/
Luca Antonucci
Founder and Artistic Director
Luca Antonucci is Music Director of the Orchestra Without Borders of Boston and Boston Summer Opera and Assistant Conductor of the Berkshire Opera Festival.
A native of Watertown, MA, Antonucci is a graduate of Amherst College, the Hartt School of Music, and the University of Michigan, and the recipient of numerous academic and musical awards, including a Fulbright Fellowship to study the works of Arnold Schoenberg in Vienna, where he attended classes at the MdW and performed in the Vienna Konzerthaus and at the Wiener Tag der Blasmusik. Other studies include the Miami Music Festival, the European American Musical Alliance in Paris, the Eastman Conducting Institute, where he conducted the Rochester Philharmonic, and two appearances in Benjamin Zander’s Interpretation Classes in Boston.
Performances at the University of Michigan included Mahler’s Fourth Symphony, Mozart’s Symphony No. 41 (Jupiter) and Ravel’s Le Tombeau de Couperin, as well as performances of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and Romeo and Juliet, Stravinsky’s Firebird, Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Cosí Fan Tutte, Offenbach’s Orpheus in the Underworld, and works by Florence Price, Reena Esmail, William Grant Still, Nkeiru Okoye, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Dame Ethel Smyth, and Jessie Montgomery.
Luca has assisted a number of prominent conductors, including preparing a series of performances of Mendelssohn’s Elijah for Dr. Eugene Rogers at the Centro Cultural Kirchner in Buenos Aires, as well as regular work with the Portland Symphony Orchestra, the Ann Arbor Symphony, and Opera in the Heights, and has served as a recording producer for the Grammy-winning University Orchestras in their Michigan Orchestral Repertory for Equity project.
A multifaceted musician, Luca has worked as a choral and orchestral conductor in the Hartford and Boston areas as well as freelance trumpet player, private teacher, singer, church music director, and educator. As a member of the faculty at the Brimmer and May School, he was awarded an innovation grant to develop new curricula addressing the needs of a diverse, 21st-century student body, and worked with leading jazz and world music artists in the Boston area.
Recent appointments include as Music Director of the Michigan Life Sciences and Michigan Pops Orchestras, the Manchester Symphony, and the Lincoln-Sudbury Civic Orchestra, and he previously served as conductor of the Pioneer Valley Youth Orchestra and Interim Conductor of the Pioneer Valley Symphony in Greenfield, MA.
In his free time, Luca enjoys cooking, dabbling in jazz piano, and listening to opera.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Luca Antonucci, Executive Director
Emily Conner-Simons, Secretary
Taylor Stobinski, Treasurer
Lois Shapiro, Artistic Advisor
Roni Hyman, Publicity and Social Media
