Concert: ‘Mozart: The Universal’

The concert, organised by the Que l’Art Circule association, celebrates the composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. His music – universal, accessible and instantly recognisable to all – delights music lovers and those less familiar with classical music alike.
Pianist Manuel Lucas has put together a programme featuring and providing commentary on Mozart’s most famous works: variations on “Ah! Shall I Tell You, Mummy?”, a transcription of the “Requiem”, the “Turkish March”, and the lesser-known but equally beautiful “Sonatas Nos. 8 and 16” (excerpts).

Manuel Lucas is a pupil of the Norman pianist François Guillou. He subsequently enrolled at the Caen Conservatoire of Music in Marie-Pascale Talbot’s piano class, from which he graduated with a First Prize in 2013. At the same time, he studied composition under Jean-Louis Agobet and Cédric Granelle.
His career as a pianist has taken him to towns and cities across France, performing in their castles, stately homes and grand hotels. His path as a composer has followed a more academic route, with institutional commissions such as the symphonic epic “NormanD-Day” in 2014 for the 70th anniversary ceremonies of the D-Day landings, or the work “Chaleur(s)” for double children’s choir, commissioned by the Normandy Regional Education Authority in 2021.
It was upon meeting the conductor Didier Horry that he joined the Caen Normandy Regional University Choir & Orchestra in 2008, an ensemble he remained with until taking over as its director from 2017 to 2022.
Because the life of an artist is full of surprises, he was offered the unique role of Butler-Pianist at the Château des Rêves, a magnificent château in La Ferté-Fresnel, a position he accepted and held from 2022 to 2026.
The audience is a musician’s lifeblood, and he has recently decided to devote himself to organising piano tours throughout France.