Luke Puglisi

Biography

Luke Puglisi is an audio engineer, drummer, singer, producer, and graduate from The New School University (College of Performing Arts - School of Jazz) in New York City. Following graduation, he decided to stay in New York to pursue a career in mixing and production. Luke states, “I’ve always believed that you should work towards a career that brings fulfillment and happiness as opposed to focusing on maximizing material wealth.” 

At the early age of 5 years old, Luke’s aunt gifted him his first drum set for Christmas. He seemingly had a natural talent for music, and playing the drums quickly became his favorite hobby. In second grade, Luke was introduced to the disciplinary side of music through taking lessons at a nearby music shop. As he entered middle school, Luke continued playing the drums in the school’s jazz band as well as participating in the concert band as a percussionist. It wasn’t until his last year at middle school (8th grade) that he joined chorus and began to sing. In the same year, Luke developed a deep love for vocal harmony through singing in a barbershop quartet group and discovering the famous a capella group, Pentatonix. 

In high school, Luke excelled in everything music. He secured a spot in the honor’s concert band as only a freshman, he partook in the school’s Jazz Ensemble, Percussion Ensemble, Chorus and selective choral groups, as well as being selected for All-County bands multiple times. Luke was also Vice President of the Tri-M Music Honor Society. Luke took an internship at a local theater where he played drums in a pit band for Oliver! the musical. This sparked an interest in performing professionally and elevated his desire to go to college for music. He proceeded to do pit band for school musicals as well as professional productions outside of school. Luke describes that when he started high school he already imagined himself going to college for music, but as the years went on he wasn’t so sure about this anymore. He never took the time to truly think about this, and when he finally did, the weight of the decision sunk in. This period of reevaluation was an emotional time for Luke. He states:

“Everyone knew me as the music guy: my friends, my family, etc. For some reason, I felt ashamed for considering a choice other than music. My personal crisis perhaps came from the fact that I already spent so much time and energy focused on music. I needed to choose my college major with a mindset that music wasn’t the only option for me.”

After taking some time to think things through, Luke ultimately landed back on music, prioritizing happiness over anything else. He applied and auditioned at Universities throughout the state of New York, but eventually chose to attend The New School (New York City). As a senior, he received Westhill High School’s Louis Armstrong Jazz Award, Stan Colella Memorial Music Scholarship award, as well as the Joan B. Nowicki Music Scholarship.         

In college, Luke Puglisi was immediately met with overcoming stage fright. His freshman class, “Drum Lab” taught by Amir Ziv, continuously took him out of his comfort zone by forcing him to play particularly difficult music in front of the entire class. He had a similar experience in Ear training classes, this time having to sing in front of the class. Luke claims that classes like these built his confidence in ways nothing else could. He is very grateful for the teachers and experiences he had in college. Luke has taken private lessons with Allison Miller, Amir Ziv, Vincent Cherico, Geoffrey Countryman, and Bobby Sanabria. He has taken most of his lessons with Vince and Bobby, as he has decided to focus on Afro-Cuban and Latin music when it comes to playing the drums. 

Let’s take a step back to freshman year. While leisurely watching youtube videos in his dorm room, Luke discovered the artist, Charlie Puth. It fascinated him to find out that Puth made all of his music by recording and mixing alone at his own house. There was no need for a studio or for other people to help him. He was completely self-sufficient. This inspired Luke to research the process of recording and production and soon led him to buy his first microphone off Amazon for just $30. He knew this wasn’t the greatest quality, but he just wanted to give it a try. He used GarageBand to make his first recording with the microphone: an a cappella cover of “Beauty and the Beast.” This spiraled into more recordings as well as taking classes in Protools and mixing at college. Starting his sophomore year, Luke chose to focus more on mixing and production, so much so that his career goals changed from being a performer to being a mixing engineer. During his senior year (fall semester), Luke had an internship at The Bunker Studio in Brooklyn. The experiences Luke had during his internship were very valuable in his pursuit to expand his knowledge in the field. Luke was also an assistant audio engineer to Geoff Countryman during his last semester at The New School. In his final moments at the university, Luke put on a senior showcase that displayed a set list of 7 songs each of which symbolize turning points in his music career. Luke graduated in May of 2022 with a GPA of 3.95 receiving a BFA in Jazz and Contemporary Music as well as the Alice and John Coltrane Award of Excellence.

Luke is currently working as an audio engineer at Euphoria Studios and looking for career opportunities in mixing, recording, producing, tv/film scoring, and performing. In early 2023 Luke started a remote recording services company called, “Home Studio Express.” For more info, visit the HSE page.