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.
JULIEN LIBEER piano FRANZ SCHUBERT Piano Sonata in G Major D. 894 A brief commentary on the work by Prof Frank E. Cooper follows the performance. May 12, 201...
JULIEN LIBEER Piano Gabriel Fauré Preludes Op.103 January 20, 2019 Aventura Arts and Cultural Center Aventura, Florida Miami International Piano Festival
The canopy rises from Bahia to encircle the planet, but but the roots of the Matrix go back decades to Kingston, Jamaica...
I'm Sparrow. I used the contract above, Bob Marley's first (co-signed by his aunt because he was under 21, and this is a copy I made of Clement Dodd's original) to retrieve unpaid royalties from CBS Records. I retrieved money for Aretha Franklin, Gilberto Gil, Led Zeppelin, Barbra Streisand, Mongo Santamaria and many others. But what if Bob hadn't got out of Kingston, or Aretha out of Chicago? They would have been just as great but there would have been no way for the wider world to know. The world brims with brilliant artists without reach, including writers, filmmakers, painters... So in the Matrix, everybody can potentially be experienced from everywhere in the world. And the famous? Very few people (Bob and Michael Jackson aside) are famous everywhere, plus the famous like to recommend (connect to) too. The pathways are open. As they say in Bahia, "Laroyê!"
Dear Sparrow: I am thrilled to receive your email! Thank you for including me in this wonderful matrix. — Susan Rogers (Susan was personal recording engineer for Prince; she recorded "Purple Rain", "Around the World in a Day", "Parade", and "Sign o' the Times" and she is now director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory)
Dear Sparrow, Many thanks for this – I am touched! — Julian Lloyd Webber (Julian is the most highly renowned cellist in the United Kingdom; he is brother of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber (Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Cats...)
This is super impressive work ! Congratulations ! Thanks for including me :))) — Clarice Assad (Clarice is a pianist and composer, with works performed by Yo Yo Ma and orchestras around the world)
The Matrix uncoils from the Recôncavo of Bahia, Brazil, final port-of-call for more enslaved human beings than any other such throughout all of human history and from where some of the most physically and spiritually uplifting music ever made (samba and its precursor chula, per the Saturno Brothers below) evolved...
By the same mathematics positioning some 8 billion human beings within some 6 or so steps of each other, people in the Matrix tend to within close, accessible steps of everybody else inside the Matrix.
Brazil is not a European nation. It's not a North American nation. It's not an East Asian nation. It straddles — jungle and desert and dense urban centers — both the equator and the Tropic of Capricorn.
Brazil absorbed over ten times the number of enslaved Africans taken to the United States of America, and is a repository of African deities (and their music) now largely forgotten in their lands of origin.
Brazil was a refuge (of sorts) for Sephardim fleeing an Inquisition which followed them across the Atlantic (that unofficial symbol of Brazil's national music — the pandeiro — the hand drum in the opening scene above — was almost certainly brought to Brazil by these people).
Across the parched savannas of the interior of Brazil's culturally fecund nordeste/northeast, where wizard Hermeto Pascoal was born in Lagoa da Canoa (Lagoon of the Canoe) and raised in Olho d'Águia (Eye of the Eagle), much of Brazil's aboriginal population was absorbed into a caboclo/quilombola culture punctuated by the Star of David.
SPARROW/PARDAL ROBERTS
SUSAN ROGERS
JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER
CLARICE ASSAD
ALICIA SVIGALS
KAMASI WASHINGTON