Lucas Debargue is a French pianist, born in Paris on October 23, 1990. His family soon moved to Villers-sur-Coudun in the Oise department. He began piano lessons at age 11 in Compiègne, after his parents divorced. After completing his general education, he stopped studying music and enrolled in the literature faculty at the University of Paris.
Debargue later returned to music, first learning by ear on an electronic piano given to him by his father and taking private lessons. A performance at a concert organized by the city of Compiègne helped change his attitude toward music; he played works by Saint-Saëns, Chopin, and Liszt. He entered the Paris Conservatoire in Jean-François Heisser’s class, but studied mainly with Rena Shereshevskaya at the regional conservatory in Rueil-Malmaison and the École Normale de Musique de Paris. Shereshevskaya noted his ability to learn difficult works by ear, including “Scarbo” from Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit and Prokofiev’s Piano Sonata No. 3.
Debargue also plays jazz with several Paris ensembles. His repertoire includes works by Nikolai Medtner, Nikolai Roslavets, Alexander Scriabin, Sergei Rachmaninoff, and Sergei Prokofiev. In 2014, he won the Adilia Alieva International Piano Competition in Gaillard and competed in the International Piano Competition in Minsk, where he did not advance beyond the first round.
At the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition, Debargue received fourth prize, a diploma, and the Moscow Association of Music Critics’ Prize. It was his first experience performing with an orchestra: he played a Mozart concerto in the second round and concertos by Tchaikovsky and Liszt in the final. After the competition, he began giving about 60 to 70 concerts a year around the world, including tours in Russia.