Luke Di Somma

Luke Di Somma is a New Zealand lyricist, composer, writer and director. He studied at the University of Canterbury, the New Zealand School of Music and the Tisch School of the Arts. His punk-rock musical That Bloody Woman was a smash hit at the 2015 Christchurch Arts Festival, and subsequently toured New Zealand, playing to over 30,000 people. Other compositions include Dinostory and The Things Between Us. He has been commissioned by New Zealand Opera to write a comedic opera about a group of unruly tourists who toured New Zealand in 2019.

Early life and education Di Somma grew up in Christchurch, where he attended Cashmere High School. Both his parents are journalists.

Di Somma has a Bachelor of Music from the University of Canterbury, and First Class Honours in conducting and composition from the New Zealand School of Music, where he studied under Michael Norris, Jack Body, John Psathas, and Kenneth Young. Di Somma received a Fulbright scholarship to study at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he completed a Master of Fine Arts through the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Programme.

In 2017, the first 45 minutes of a work about dinosaurs, Dinostory, played at Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Other Palace.

Teaching and directing Di Somma has taught at Federation University Australia, New York University, Victorian College of the Arts, the National Academy of Singing and Dramatic Arts, and the Stella Adler Musical Theatre Intensive in New York. Di Somma was based in London 2015–2017, and then Melbourne, Australia, where he taught at Federation University Australia.

He has been described by broadcaster Kim Hill as the "wunderkind of the Christchurch musical scene".