ABOUT
Named BBC Music Magazine's 2018 Revelation of the Year, Julien began learning the piano at the age of 5 and first performed at the Salle Cortot (Paris) at the age of 7. He was trained by Erik Berchot at the Conservatoire National de Région de Marseille and Rena Shereshevskaya at the École Normale de Musique de Paris Alfred Cortot. He received support from the Zaleski Foundation, the Assophie association and the Safran Foundation during his training.
In January 2013, he was spotted by Maria João Pires during an advanced course at the Cité de la Musique (Paris). She subsequently invited him to take up an artistic residency at the Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth in Belgium.
She will present him in numerous concerts around the world, including at the Warsaw Philharmonic for the prestigious Chopin Festival, the Florence Opera in the Great Artists series, the Sheldonian Theatre (Oxford), the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium (Las Palmas) and the Philharmonie de Paris.
Following this introduction, he also gave numerous recitals around the world, including at Wigmore Hall (London), New York Town Hall, Piano Days de Flagey, Festival Classique au Vert, Piano aux Jacobins, Festival Chopin de Nohant and Tippet Rise Art Center in the USA (Montana), Cambridge Music Festival, Chopin Society (London) and NCPA (Beijing), filling in at short notice for renowned pianists Fazil Say and Nelson Goerner.
Highlights of the 2024-2025 season include the autumn 2024 release of his third solo album, "Here", dedicated to his compositions recorded at the Tippet Rise Art Center before the pandemic, a tour of the United States, and the release of a second album on Deutsche Grammophon with cellist Camille Thomas.
Julien is also a regular chamber music partner of cellists Lidy Blijdorp, Camille Thomas and violinist Rosanne Philippens, co-organizing with pianist Julien Libeer the Spanish chamber music festival "Pause Festival" in La Donaira, Andalusia.
Julien also works to promote music and the arts in unusual places, organizing workshops to introduce people to classical music, and educational projects for children in difficulty. He has contributed to the development of the Equinoxe children's choir, created by Maria João Pires, and is involved as vocal director in the Singing Molenbeek children's choir, which works in the schools of Molenbeek in Brussels.
Music is often identified as entertainment, but it is also a tool that Julien proposes as a vector of care and therapy. Together with Doctor of Emotional Psychology Ilios Kotsou, he is initiating regular Musical Breathing sessions, which will soon be distributed via an open-source mobile app.
His first album released in 2017 is dedicated to the repertoire of Frédéric Chopin with the 24 Preludes Op. 28 and Sonata No. 2 Op.35. The recording was unanimously acclaimed by the international press, with BBC Music Magazine calling it a "bewitching Chopin", awarding it 5 stars and presenting it as its best instrumental album of the month.