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The Montreal-based pianist and composer comes to West London to perform his latest album Aubades
Growing up in rural Quebec, Blais only started tickling on the family organ at age 9, before beginning to compose, attending piano lessons. He enjoyed playing in masses, weddings and funerals. Endowed with natural talent, he entered the Conservatoire de Musique de Trois-Rivières where he trained as a classical pianist.
Noticed by Toronto-based label Arts & Crafts, Blais launched his debut opus, Il, written after two years of daily improvisation, recorded with a Zoom H4n in his Mile-End apartment. The disc ranked among the Top 10 best albums in Time Magazine. The album collected more than 50 million plays worldwide, ranked fourteen times number one on Classical Billboard (Canada) and appeared in the long list of the Polaris Music Prize.
In September 2021, Blais unveiled murmures, a new piece from an upcoming album titled Aubades. For the first time, he wrote for a chamber orchestra, affirming himself as an emerging composer.
Presented by Birds On The Wire
About
Jean-Michel Blais is a pianist-composer-performer based in Montreal. Growing up in rural Quebec, Blais only started tickling on the family organ at age 9, before beginning to compose, attending piano lessons. He enjoyed playing in masses, weddings and funerals. Endowed with natural talent, he entered the Conservatoire de Musique de Trois-Rivières where he trained as a classical pianist.
Noticed by Toronto-based label Arts & Crafts, Blais launched his debut opus, Il, written after two years of daily improvisation, recorded with a Zoom H4n in his Mile-End apartment. The disc ranked among the Top 10 best albums in Time Magazine, which mentioned that his music breathes, invites to take a moment and recognize there’s still plenty of beauty left in the world. The album collected more than 50 million plays worldwide, ranked fourteen times number one on classical Billboard (Canada) and appeared in the long list of the Polaris Music Prize.
In 2017, he performed at the Red Bull Music Academy in collaboration with Grammy-nominated electronic producer CFCF. This concert gave birth to Cascades, a collaborative EP, receiving particularly glowing reviews from the BBC (Radio 6) and Pitchfork, for whom the piano and electronics synchronized to exalted effect.
In 2019, he signed internationally with London-based record label Mercury KX (Universal / Decca) and launched Matthias & Maxime, the soundtrack of the eponymous film directed by Xavier Dolan. Critically acclaimed, Blais received an honorable gold record from the Cannes Soundtrack Award, for his work of remarkable quality, as well as the Iris for the best original music (Gala Québec Cinema).
In September 2021, Blais unveiled murmures, a new piece from an upcoming album titled aubades. For the first time, he wrote for chamber orchestra, affirming himself as an emerging composer.
Presented by Birds On The Wire
