“There hasn’t been a foreign pianist who has caused such a stir since Glenn Gould’s arrival in Moscow in the midst of the Cold War, or Van Cliburn’s victory at the Tchaikovsky Competition.” – Olivier Bellamy, THE HUFFINGTON POST
French pianist Lucas Debargue is widely regarded as one of the most original pianists of his generation. His concerts are experiences, not just performances. Debargue is an interpreter who draws inspiration for his playing from literature, painting, and cinema. He develops very personal interpretations of a carefully selected repertoire.
Debargue describes the encounter with his current mentor, the celebrated Rena Shereshevskaya, as a turning point in his career. Shereshevskaya’s insight and guidance inspired Debargue to dedicate the rest of his life to music. Since then, he has performed at venues including the Philharmonie de Paris, Carnegie Hall in New York, and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. Debargue is a familiar face at festivals such as the Verbier Festival, and the Festival de Pâques d’Aix-en-Provence and has collaborated with various conductors, including Ludovic Morlot, Lorenzo Viotti, Andrey Boreyko, Laurence Equilbey, Tarmo Peltokoski, Tugan Sokhiev, and Sascha Goetzel.
Debargue rose to international fame at the XV Intrnational Tchaikovsky Competition as the most talked-about sensation in 2015. He captivated both critics and audiences alike and returned home not only with a fourth-place finish but also with a special prize from the Moscow Music Critics Association. His incredible gift, artistic vision, and creative freedom have since propelled him to the top of the classical music world.
After his success in the competition, Debargue soon began his career with Sony Classical, which released his debut album, Scarlatti – Chopin – Liszt – Ravel, in 2016. His 2019 tribute to Scarlatti was praised by The New York Times and selected among “the ten classical albums to usher in the next decade”. In addition to interpreting other composers’ works with fierce integrity and dazzling communicative power, Debargue also devotes much of his time to composing.
Debargue’s album Gershwin Variations, to be released on 11th of September 2026, is an ambitious and unprecedented project. It is an ode to George Gershwin, who stood at the crossroads of classical music and jazz. The singularity of Gershwin’s unclassifiable compositional style inspired Debargue to create a work that is equally impossible to categorize. The double album features both some of Gershwin’s most iconic songs and etudes that Debargue has composed from Gershwin’s most popular songs. These compositions, among others, will be featured in his programme at the Mänttä Music Festival, which prior to that takes the audience to a journey from the luminous elegance of the Baroque to the storms of Romanticism.