Variations

Variations: The European meeting point for piano and keyboard music

Since 2017, the Variations festival has established itself as a major European event dedicated to contemporary and experimental music for piano and keyboards. Supported by the Lieu Unique, Nantes' center for contemporary cultures, and the BNP Paribas Foundation, Variations each year explores the keyboard in all its forms—from the most classical to the most experimental—by welcoming the finest international avant-garde musicians.

An audacious and cross-genre program

Each edition, Variations offers around thirty concerts that traverse genres and aesthetics:

• Contemporary and classical music: repertoire works and creations for solo piano, keyboard ensembles, organ, and harpsichord, with internationally renowned performers.
• Jazz and improvisation: pianists and keyboardists exploring the territories of contemporary jazz, free improvisation, and world music.
• Electronic and experimental: synthesizers, live electronics, audiovisual performances, and post-club music, with pioneering artists from the international electronic scene.
• Pop, hyperpop, and current music: unique artists reinventing the role of the keyboard in popular music.

Unique listening formats

One of Variations' hallmarks is the diversity of its listening formats. Beyond the traditional concert, the festival offers:

• Concerts in a lying position (Pianoscape): an immersive and meditative experience where the audience lies down to listen to the piano.
• Intimate solo concerts: the spectator is alone with the musician, in a privileged dialogue.
• Talks and meetings: exchanges between artists, musicologists, and the public about the works and aesthetics.
• Screenings and live A/V: cinema and audiovisual performances related to the keyboard.
• Club nights: nocturnal electronic programming and dancefloor.

A nomadic festival rooted at the Lieu Unique

While the Lieu Unique remains the festival's epicenter, Variations adopts a nomadic dimension by taking over numerous cultural venues in Nantes and its metropolitan area: Pannonica/Salle Paul-Fort, Théâtre Graslin, Musée d'arts de Nantes, Chapelle de l'Immaculée, Cinématographe, Stereolux, Salons Mauduit, Macadam, Ohm Town, and the Auditorium/La Soufflerie in Rezé. This multi-venue presence transforms the Nantes metropolitan area into a vast landscape of musical discovery.

A commitment to emerging talent and diversity

True to its pioneering spirit, Variations showcases both established international artists and emerging talents. The festival champions the diversity of aesthetics, gender parity, and accessibility, with free events and affordable ticket prices to reach a broad, curious, and novice audience.