BIOGRAPHY

Julien Libeer is praised for his profound musical approach, expressive interpretation, and keen understanding of the works he performs, which are invitations to revisit the timeless works of Bach, Mozart or Ravel… With clarity of execution, extreme sensitivity and clever discourse, Julien Libeer has everything going for him. A free spirit and an immense artist!

Julien Libeer was born in 1987 near Brussels, Belgium. His earliest musical memory is the famous documentary about the recording of West Side Story by Leonard Bernstein. The piano, which he began playing at the age of six, soon became his faithful companion in expressing a love for music that is rooted as strongly in opera, orchestral and chamber music as in the piano repertoire. For five crucial years, the French-Polish pedagogue Jean Fassina was the patient, demanding and wise teacher that every aspiring musician should have the privilege to meet. This experience was followed by an equally intense collaboration with Maria João Pires at the Queen Elisabeth Chapel, whose advice and support have had a major influence on Julien’s vision over the past years. He attended masterclasses with Dmitry Bashkirov, Daniel Blumenthal, Alfred Brendel, Nelson Delle Vigne-Fabbri, Jura Margulis, Artemis Quartet and Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg Quartet), among others. Julien Libeer is Artist in Residence at Flagey (Brussels) and a guest at prestigious international venues and festivals: the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Barbican Hall and Wigmore Hall in London, Palau de la Música (Barcelona), Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Théâtre des Abbesses (Paris), Steinway International Concert Series (Cardiff), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), the Enescu Festival in Bucharest and the Miami International Piano Festival. Other tours have taken him to Japan, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Turkey and the United States.

As a soloist, Julien has performed with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Brussels Philharmonic, Belgian National Orchestra, Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, Sinfonia Varsovia and New Japan Philharmonic, under the baton of conductors such as Trevor Pinnock, Jun Märkl, Michel Tabachnik, Augustin Dumay, Karel Deseure, Hervé Niquet, Joshua Weilerstein and Enrique Mazzola. His dedication to the work of Dinu Lipatti has led, among other things, to a warm collaboration with the Radio Orchestra of Bucharest and performances with Lemanic Modern Ensemble in Geneva and Paris. Evil Penguin Records released Julien’s recording featuring Lipatti’s Concertino for piano and orchestra and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595 (Les Métamorphoses Orchestra and conductor Raphaël Feye).

His dedication to the work of Dinu Lipatti has led, among other things, to a warm collaboration with the Radio Orchestra of Bucharest and performances with Lemanic Modern Ensemble in Geneva and Paris. Evil Penguin Records released Julien’s recording featuring Lipatti’s Concertino for piano and orchestra and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, K. 595 (Les Métamorphoses Orchestra and conductor Raphaël Feye).

Julien Libeer forms a trio with cellist Bruno Philippe and violinist Lorenzo Gatto. In October 2025, Harmonia Mundi released a Ravel album featuring his work for solo piano and chamber music, recorded together with Gatto and Philippe. For their CD cycle of Beethoven’s sonatas, Lorenzo Gatto and Julien Libeer received the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2016.
Additionally, Harmonia Mundi released a Mozart album in 2025, for which Julien collaborated with Pierre Colombet (violin), Máté Szűcs (viola) and Eckart Runge (cello). The CD Mozart 1.2.3.4 — featuring a piano sonata, violin sonata, piano trio and piano quartet — received the highest rating from both BBC Music Magazine and Rondo Magazine: 5/5 stars.
The collaboration with the label Harmonia Mundi began with two Bach albums. In 2020, Julien released Bach–Bartók, followed in 2022 by A Well-Tempered Conversation, a conceptual approach to Bach’s mythical Das wohltemperierte Klavier.

On the occasion of the 300th anniversary of the publication of Book I, Julien Libeer came up with the idea of placing this monumental work in a new light. He initiated a dialogue in which Bach’s prelude and fugue pairs in major keys ‘enter into conversation’ with later pieces – in the corresponding minor keys – by composers such as Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Rachmaninov, Ligeti and Schönberg.
The international press was full of praise for this Bach experiment. Together with conductor Daniel Reuss and Cappella Amsterdam, Julien then further developed the concept in the concert program Well-Tempered Songbook. In it, works from Das wohltemperierte Klavier take centre stage and form the common thread through a selection of choral works.
In November 2025, a new tour by Julien and Cappella Amsterdam followed, this time with Ravel’s Miroirs as the starting point. For the coming years, new Bach projects are planned, with Cappella Amsterdam and other vocal ensembles.

Julien Libeer initiates various projects that place music outside the concert hall as well. In 2016, he was the presenter of a major Belgian television program about classical music, and he initiated Salon Libeer at the Concertgebouw in Bruges, where music and conversation come together to deepen the listening experience.

In addition, Julien is artistic director of Singing Molenbeek, a children’s choir from a neighbourhood in the Brussels suburbs that often appears in the news for less positive reasons. With this project, he aims to support children in their personal and social development through music – with all its challenges and rewards.