Andrea Lucchesi was an Italian composer, organist, and influential educator of the late 1700s. He composed operas, symphonies, works for keyboard, and served as the court Kapellmeister in Bonn.

Lucchesi was born in Motta di Livenza in 1741 into a wealthy family of minor nobility. His first musical training came from his older brother, who was a priest, organist, and teacher. He received a first-class education from the school in Padua, and was instructed by the famous mathematician and music theorist Giordano Riccati. In 1757, Lucchesi moved to Venice, and through the protection and guidance of nobleman Jseppo Morosini, he studied with Domenico Gallo, Giuseppe Saratelli, and Baldassare Galuppi. He studied both sacred and secular music and learned to compose equally well in either style. Four years later, he became the examining commissioner for keyboardists, and was responsible for granting licenses to pianists, organists, and composers of keyboard music. At this time he was composing works for the organ and harpsichord, as well as commissioned pieces for royalty, local nobility, and state ceremonies.

By 1765, Lucchesi's comic opera L'isola della fortuna had a very successful debut performance in Vienna, and it was also very popular in Venice, and in Lisbon later in 1767. He met the young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his father, Leopold, during their trip to Venice in 1771, and he gave them a harpsichord concerto that he composed, which the Mozarts performed and used for educational purposes for many years. Through the recommendation of Count Durazzo and Galuppi, Lucchesi was invited to Bonn in 1774 by the Archbishop of Cologne to "bring order" to the court orchestra, which was previously led by Ludwig van Beethoven's grandfather. This was the beginning of a three-year-long probationary period, which led to a lifelong appointment as Kapellmeister in 1777. Lucchesi transformed the court orchestra into one of the top performing ensembles of Germany. As a condition of his employment, he was required to conform to the "anonymous practice" of composing anonymously, which is partially responsible for the gap in his worklist during this time. Additionally, he was an important teacher to Beethoven when he was in Bonn from 1781 to 1792, and Lucchesi also had a major influence on Antoine Reicha, and Andreas and Bernhard Romberg. Although his appointment as Kapellmeister was a lifelong contract, it ended in 1794 because of the French Revolution. Lucchesi lived his final years in Bonn and he died in 1801. Giovanni Battista Columbro and Giorgio Taboga's research from the 2000s revealed that Lucchesi was actually the true composer of many works that were previously thought to be composed by Mozart and Haydn. ~ RJ Lambert, Rovi