Benoît Delbecq
Pianist

Benoît Delbecq is an award-winning Parisian pianist and composer, a trailblazer who persists in developing his ideas in a highly rhythmic, multi-layered approach, bringing the soul of jazz to John Cage's prepared piano. Delbecq can prepare a few strings with wooden sticks, then sit at the piano, transforming the instrument into a percussion-piano ensemble.
Delbecq is curious with sound (he also uses an electronic installation for some of his projects, as in Ambitronix or Plug and Pray), with the rhythm of languages, and with mutant micro-loops that he calls rhythmic fabrics. His musical force weaves remarkable and captivating works inspired by sources as varied as mathematics, poetry and architecture, to name a few.
Since the early 1990s, Delbecq's works have been acclaimed by such legendary musicians as Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, György Ligeti and Steve Coleman, as well as by a long list of critics, peers and festival curators around the world.
At the age of 16, after taking a few years of classical piano lessons at the age of 6, Benoit Delbecq studied improvised music with free music pioneer Alan Silva, founder of the Institut de Perception Artistique et Culturelle in Paris. At the age of 18, he studied sound engineering and acoustics. He joined Silva's Celestrial Communication Orchestra, while jazz giant Mal Waldron mentored him, encouraging him to pursue his own musical ideas. After completing his studies as a recording engineer, Delbecq attended several jazz workshops at the Banff Centre where he studied with Dave Holland, Steve Coleman, Muhal Richard Abrams, Kenny Wheeler and Abraham Adzenyah, among other greats. He also studied composition and musical analysis with Solange Ancona, a former student of Olivier Messiaen.
To compose, Delbecq uses his own graphic notation of circles and calligrams, which gives his music a particular pace and rhythm. In addition to being a performer, composer and producer, Delbecq gives workshops and master classes around the world.