Julien Libeer

Born in 1987 in Belgium, pianist Julien Libeer has studied with Daniel Blumenthal (Royal Conservatory of Brussels), Jean Fassina (Paris), and Maria João Pires. He is also an associate artist of the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, where he specialized in chamber music with the members of the Artemis Quartet. Throughout his career, he has received guidance from esteemed musicians such as Dmitry Bashkirov, Alfred Brendel, Nelson Delle Vigne-Fabbri, Jura Margulis, and Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg Quartet).

Libeer has performed at prestigious venues, including Barbican Hall (London), Auditorio Nacional (Madrid), Palau de la Música (Barcelona), and the Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), as well as being a regular guest at Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels) and Concertgebouw Amsterdam. His international tours have taken him to Japan (Tokyo’s Sumida Triphony Hall), Lebanon (Beirut Chants Festival), Turkey (Ankara Music Festival), and the United States (Miami International Piano Festival). He currently serves as an artist-in-residence at Flagey.

He has collaborated with renowned orchestras such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Brussels Philharmonic, Belgian National Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia, and the New Japan Philharmonic, working under conductors including Trevor Pinnock, Jun Märkl, Michel Tabachnik, Augustin Dumay, Hervé Niquet, Joshua Weilerstein, and Enrique Mazzola. His dedication to the works of Dinu Lipatti has led to notable collaborations, including performances with the Bucharest Radio Orchestra.

A passionate chamber musician, Libeer regularly performs with Augustin Dumay, Camille Thomas, Frank Braley, Maria João Pires, and Lorenzo Gatto, with whom he has presented the complete Beethoven violin sonatas over several seasons. His recording of these sonatas with Gatto (Alpha Classics) won the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2016. His debut concerto album, featuring Lipatti’s Concertino for Piano and Orchestra and Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 27 in B-flat major, KV 595 (with Les Métamorphoses Orchestra and conductor Raphaël Feye, released on Evil Penguin Records), was met with critical acclaim. In 2017, he received an Echo Klassik Award for his album with cellist Camille Thomas.

Libeer later signed with Harmonia Mundi International, releasing Bach–Bartók (2020), followed by A Well-Tempered Conversation (2022), a conceptual exploration of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier.

Beyond his concert career, Libeer is passionate about projects that highlight music’s power to inspire and effect change. He hosted a Belgian TV series advocating for musical storytelling and curates the Salon Libeer concert series at the Bruges Concertgebouw, where he collaborates with fellow musicians and guest speakers, such as philosophers, historians, and authors. Additionally, he leads the lecture series Dead or Alive, a philosophical exploration of shifts in classical music-making, in collaboration with LUCA School of Arts and the Catholic University of Leuven.