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The German organist, harpsichordist, conductor and music pedagogue, Viktor Lukas, studied with Friedrich Högner and Karl Richter in Munich and also with Marcel Dupré at the Paris Conservatoire, a strong influence on him. He completed his training as a conductor under Fritz Lehmann, studied musicology at Munich University and was a prize-winner as an organist in the Munich ARD Competition and other international contests.
In 1960 Viktor Lukas became director of church music of the Bayreuth Stadtkirche and in the following year established the Bayreuth Organ Week, from which Musica Bayreuth developed. In 1975 he became Professor of organ at the Cologne Musikhochschule. Among his students: Odilo Klasen, Ulrich Leykam, Helga Schauerte-Maubouet, and Bernd Scherers. At the same time he served as organist of the Gürzenich, later the Cologne Philharmonic, the organ of which was his conception.
Viktor Lukas has had a successful career as an organist and as a conductor, with appearances throughout Europe, in the USA and throughout the former Soviet Union, as far afield as China. With a repertoire centring on the music of J.S. Bach, Max Reger and other German romantics, his performances have won acclaim in major international centres of music. He also appears regularly as organist with the Cologne Philharmonic and with the Lukas Consort. He has a number of recordings to his credit and in 1993 was awarded the Bayreuth and Oberfrankenstiftung Culture Prize. |
