Luigi Lupo is an Italian flutist, and a renowned specialist of historical flutes, spanning from medieval to romantic music.
Luigi’s passion dates back in the 1990’s and has always been characterized by a curious and active exploration of period instruments and performance practices.
He has an intense performance activity with early music ensembles, and teaching engagements in prominent academic institutions. He has recently released a Telemann’s flute duos CD, and is preparing releases of music by Bach family and Quantz.
www.luigilupo.it/
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The first thing you do when you pick up your traverso to start the practice day, and why?
I try to feel and test the harmony of the touch between the lips, the chin and the embouchure of the instrument. I try to find the right position, to establish a "comfortable" contact between me and the flute. From how I feel this position, I already know how the instrument will respond going further. It's a very intimate feeling.
Any recurring piece to play every day, and why?​
The daily company is mainly the Frederick the Great’s 100 daily  exercises, as they are convenient to always carry with you, and in any case touch all keys. These are alternated with some Quantz’s studies (Caprices and Fantasies), Telemann’s Fantasias and  some books of technique for the recorder (mainly Steaps and Rooda) that I find very interesting to play with the traverso.
Do you have a daily routine?​
After trying to connect and empathize with the instrument, I usually start with long notes.
What kind of goals do you set for your practice?​
The exercises for the sound are almost always followed by studies in the several keys with flats. I try to find the center of the sound for the chosen tonality, both in major and minor modes. 
Do you do any systematic warm-up?
I take care of breathing with the long notes and then I continue  with staccato exercises, with various types of articulation, particularly scales,  and various exercises on intervals, starting from those in thirds and then forward. Also in this case it is critical to pay close attention to breathing.
One thing I say and recommend to my students is always to think of the technical exercise as a real piece of music. So you have to look for musicality, direction, phrasing, articulation, and so on, even in the most trivial technical exercise. In fact, these are nothing more than musical fragments that we find in the various pieces that will then be performed.
Another key practice is to split passages into small steps, or small sequences, and then repeat them from memory, as it suggested for example in the first exercises of Quantz’s Solfeggi.
Do you have a specific structure for warm-up and practice sessions?​
No, it also depends on the type of the piece(s) I have to prepare, otherwise, in general, I do what as described in the previous answers.
Any distinctive characteristics of baroque flute daily practice vs. modern flute or other instruments?​
In my opinion all the practices can be a bit specific, as the methodology used can be the same, but the instrument is different. The technical exercises must then be applied to the characteristics of the instrument, whether baroque, classical or modern.
What are the key elements and unmissable points of daily practice?​
Long notes, tone and technique.
How long and distributed should warm-up and practice be?
There is no fixed length for practice, everyone  has an  internal "controller" which is regulated in a personal way.  As far as I'm concerned, it's my body that sometimes demands some types of exercise and not others. This request becomes clear when you first approach the instrument, and it is an intimate feeling that springs from within, that I cannot really explain.
Any  specific tip to address difficult technical passages during daily practice?
It will be probably obvious, but the study of a difficult passage must proceed step by step. It will be played first slowly.  Later, you can add rhythmic variations, alternating between legato and staccato, to follow then gradually accelerating and bringing it even to the extreme, that is to a time faster than the time of execution.  In this phase of study, it is key that we never lose, never abandon the meaning of the phrase.  In this way, when the tempo is switched to the right one, we can have complete control. The difficult element is usually the speed control, and once this has been accomplished, we can take advantage of it from the point of view of articulation, and with full mastery of sound and intonation.
Are there any tools that are particularly useful for practicing?
I find that metronome and tuner are now fundamental tools!!!  We cannot ignore these tools which, thanks to technology, are now always within reach and increasingly sophisticated. Despite this, I find that the study with the metronome is greatly underestimated and one of the fundamental elements of music as tempo is so noticeably overlooked.
Another fundamental practice  is to exercise  long notes with the tuner, so as to be able to move the sound, sort of play with it and give it  life, while trying to  keep it always under control with the intonation.   I advise my students to keep  the tuner on  while studying and then every now and then to  check,  for example, a target note, a starting note or particular "uncomfortable" notes of the piece of music they are studying.
Any other general advice, suggestion, tip?
Take care of the sound and think that we speak with the flute. So try to articulate in a different way, as if in each piece we told something with the same intention of an actor can while reciting a written text. It is up to us to give meaning to the piece we are performing. We can all perform the same piece but each of us can give a different interpretation. 
How do you advise your students as far as structuring their daily practice?
More or less we are always there... long notes. Especially for those who are just starting out, who sometimes perceive them as a “punishment”. The proper position  to obtain a beautiful sound is subjective and may be very difficult  to find, so this practice helps to consolidate, to create a base. We must ensure that when we bring the flute to the lips we do not have to feel the instrument as an extraneous body, but as one with ourselves. 
Do you suggest or teach a warm-up routine?
I’d say a mix of all the above, i.e. long notes, technique, articulation, and so on.
Are there any specific pieces particularly beneficial to be played regularly in daily practice?
I try to take the study a little to the extreme. That is, sometimes as a technical study I take exercises for other instruments, such as for the recorder, and I execute them with the traverso. From a technique learning perspective, the material available for the recorder is really vast, so I can recommend this type of practice. From the immense repertoire for the flute of the 19th century, including fantastic methods for the classical or modern flute, we can also take very useful technical studies.  I find it very effective to do some exercises from Taffanel and Gaubert’s 17 Great Daily Exercises, Moyse’s studies and those from the 7 Exercises of Reichert.
I also try to practice a lot in the high register, as this allows me, when I am then playing in the middle and low register, to have more flexibility and resonance in the instrument at these textures.