Lucas Debargue

With an outsider attitude, an unusual history, and a sometimes unconventional technique, pianist Lucas Debargue has attracted backing from various prestigious conductors in Russia, where he made a controversial showing at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2015 and beyond. He is also a composer. Debargue was born on October 23, 1990, in Paris but grew up in Villers-sur-Coudun near Compiègne in northern France. His father was a kinesiologist, and his mother was an operating room nurse. Debargue took up the piano at nine and was at first self-taught; he listened to re...