Around age four, Julien Libeer (Belgium, 1987) discovered Leonard Bernstein conducting West Side Story. Is it possible to see Bernstein at work and not believe that making music is the greatest thing on earth?
His next big influence was the pianist Dinu Lipatti; also someone radiating musical truth. Lipatti proved formative for the direction in which Julien wanted to work, as he consciously avoided engaging in piano competitions.
For five unforgettable years, French-Polish pedagogue Jean Fassina was the mentor for Julien’s pianistic and musical foundation. An additional five years, Maria João Pires taught Julien by example, and by taking him on the road to perform with her. Ultimately, he learned that your most important asset, on stage and in life, is your freedom.
Julien Libeer was presented with the Juventus Award 2008 for being the most promising young European soloist, and was named Young Musician of the Year by the Belgian Music Press Association in 2010. His work has been subject of the documentaries Technique doesn’t exist (2013) and Jeunes Solistes, Grands Destins (2018).
Julien’s recordings have been well-received by the international press, receiving awards such as the Diapason d’Or de l’Année 2016, Klara Award 2016 and Echo Preis 2017.
Collaborations
As a soloist, Julien has had the pleasure of collaborating with orchestras such as Brussels Philharmonic, Belgian National Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Sinfonia Varsovia and New Japan Philharmonic; with conductors such as Trevor Pinnock, Michel Tabachnik, Augustin Dumay, Hervé Niquet, Serge Pehlevanian, Joshua Weilerstein, Enrique Mazzola and Christopher Warren-Green.
Distinguished chamber music partners in recent times are Augustin Dumay, Camille Thomas, Frank Braley and Maria João Pires. Julien Libeer is currently performing and recording Beethoven’s complete sonatas for violin and piano with Lorenzo Gatto.
Julien Libeer is Artist in Residence at Flagey Brussels and enjoys regular invites from Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels), Théâtre de la Ville and Salle Cortot (Paris), Barbican Hall (London), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), Concertgebouw Bruges and Concertgebouw Amsterdam.
His travels have taken him to Spain (Auditorio Nacional Madrid, Palau de la Musica Barcelona), Japan (Sumida Tryphony Hall Tokyo), Lebanon (Beirut Chants festival) and the USA (Miami International Piano Festival).
Libeer’s teachers and mentors have included Daniel Blumenthal (Royal Conservatory of Brussels), Jean Fassina (Paris), Maria João Pires, Jura Margulis, Nelson Delle-Vigne, members of the Artemis Quartet, Dmitry Bashkirov, Alfred Brendel, Abdel Rahman El Bacha and Gerhard Schulz (Alban Berg Quartet).
The Impact of Music
Julien is driven to initiate or collaborate in projects which are rooted in the idea that music, far beyond its esthetic value, can be a force of change for anyone willing to listen.
Amongst these projects was Julien hosting a Belgian TV series, that made a case for musical storytelling. Enthusiasm about music is contagious and informative. With this in mind, the Bruges Concertgebouw and Julien started a series called Salon Libeer, in which he joins a fellow musician and a speaker (e.g. philosopher, historian, author). By exploring a particular theme, the discussion strives to enhance the audience’s musical experience. Since 2019, he initiated the ‘Glass Bead Game Talks’ on his own YouTube channel, a series of discussions exploring the recent transformations of the classical music world and what to think of them.
With the project Singing Molenbeek, high level choir rehearsals are organised in the primary schools of a Brussels suburb famous for all kinds of wrong reasons. As artistic director and pianist, it is Julien’s hope that introducing these children to music, with all its demands and rewards, will help them personally and socially.
The Recôncavo is an almost invisible center-of-gravity. Circumscribing the Bay of All Saints, this region was landing for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history. Not unrelated, it is also birthplace of some of the most physically & spiritually uplifting music ever made. —Sparrow
"Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix."
—Susan Rogers: Personal recording engineer for Prince, inc. "Purple Rain", "Sign o' the Times", "Around the World in a Day"... Director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory
I'm Pardal here in Brazil (that's "Sparrow" in English). The deep roots of this project are in Manhattan, where Allen Klein (managed the Beatles and The Rolling Stones) called me about royalties for the estate of Sam Cooke... where Jerry Ragovoy (co-wrote Time is On My Side, sung by the Stones; Piece of My Heart, Janis Joplin of course; and Pata Pata, sung by the great Miriam Makeba) called me looking for unpaid royalties... where I did contract and licensing for Carlinhos Brown's participation on Bahia Black with Wayne Shorter and Herbie Hancock...
...where I rescued unpaid royalties for Aretha Franklin (from Atlantic Records), Barbra Streisand (from CBS Records), Led Zeppelin, Mongo Santamaria, Gilberto Gil, Astrud Gilberto, Airto Moreira, Jim Hall, Wah Wah Watson (Melvin Ragin), Ray Barretto, Philip Glass, Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd for his interest in Bob Marley compositions, Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam and others...
...where I worked with Earl "Speedo" Carroll of the Cadillacs (who went from doo-wopping as a kid on Harlem streetcorners to top of the charts to working as a janitor at P.S. 87 in Manhattan without ever losing what it was that made him special in the first place), and with Jake and Zeke Carey of The Flamingos (I Only Have Eyes for You)... stuff like that.
Yeah this is Bob's first record contract, made with Clement "Sir Coxsone" Dodd of Studio One and co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21. I took it to Black Rock to argue with CBS' lawyers about the royalties they didn't want to pay. They paid.
MATRIX MUSICAL
The Matrix was built below among some of the world's most powerfully moving music, some of it made by people barely known beyond village borders. Or in the case of Sodré, his anthem A MASSA — a paean to Brazil's poor ("our pain is the pain of a timid boy, a calf stepped on...") — having blasted from every radio between the Amazon and Brazil's industrial south, before he was silenced. (that's me left, with David Dye & Kim Junod for U.S. National Public Radio) ... The Matrix started with Sodré, with João do Boi, with Roberto Mendes, with Bule Bule, with Roque Ferreira... music rooted in the sugarcane plantations of Bahia. Hence our logo (a cane cutter).