about Lluc

Lluc Casares (Barcelona, 1990). Tenor Saxophone and Clarinet, fond of composition and arranging for different instrumental formats. Lluc is the first person from the Iberian Peninsula to have studied the prestigious Artist Diploma program at the Juilliard School in New York City under the tutelage of master teachers as Wynton Marsalis, Kenny Washington and Ben Wolfe.

Lluc has released 4 albums as a leader; the last one, Ride (The Changes 2023), recorded in Amsterdam featuring the master guitarist Jesse Van Ruller. Then Septet (The Changes 2021) and before that Sketches Overseas (Outside In Music 2018), recorded in New York. Sketches Overseas won the “Best Jazz Album of 2018” award by the Enderrock magazine in Spain. Red (Temps Records 2015) was his first album as a leader.

Lluc has recorded more than 20 albums as a sideman, co-leads the Barcelona Art Orchestra and is member of the bands Smack Dab or The Gramophone Allstars Big Band among others. He has played in some of the most important festivals in Europe such as the North Sea Jazz Festival, Montreux Jazz Festival, Marciac Jazz Festival, Jazz Middelheim, Baloise Session, and the Terrassa Jazz Festival among others. He has also played in clubs such as the Dizzy’s Club Coca Cola and Fat Cat in NYC, Bimhuis in Amsterdam, Jamboree in Barcelona and the Jazz at Lincoln Center in Shanghai.

Throughout his career, Lluc has been fortunate to share stage with such musicians as Dr. John, Nicholas Payton, Frank Wess, Phil Woods, Lee Konitz, Jon Faddis, Jesse Davis, Joe Farnsworth, Jesse Van Ruller, Arturo Sandoval, Wendell Brunious, Grant Stewart, Ben Van Gelder or Benjamin Herman among others.

Before Juilliard, Lluc completed an undergraduate degree at ESMUC (Catalonia’s Music College) and a masters degree at CvA (Conservatorium Van Amsterdam) where he received classes from the European legend Ferdinand Povel. During this time Lluc participated in a half-year exchange with Temple University (Philadelphia) where he studied with the great Dick Oatts. With a group of like-minded musician friends, in 2019 in Lluc formed The Changes, a collective and record label aimed at launching new projects without the guidelines and limitations of external agents.

In less than 4 years The Changes released more than 20 publications. Lluc teaches at ESMUC, ESEM (Taller de Musics in Barcelona), has also taught at the CSMIB (Superior Conservatory of Music of the Balearic Islands) and has given a seminar at the Turin Conservatory (Italy) and several masterclasses at 2 institutes in Shanghai (China). One of the peak moments of his career was when the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis invited him to play a song at a packed Palau de la Música Catalana in February 2020.

Composition and arranging play a key role in Lluc’s artistic cosmos. His involvement with the Barcelona Art Orchestra proves it since he wrote more than 10 charts for this peculiar band that he co-founded. He also wrote more than 30 other Big Band charts and many small group originals. Lluc won 2nd and 1st prize at the Big Band Canarias composition contest in 2021 and 2022 respectively.

Lluc plays and endorses a Backun Q series Bb Clarinet and D'Addario reeds.