Beginning piano at a very early age, Maxence Pilchen won his first prize when he was eleven, at the televised RTBF Young Soloists competition in Brussels. He went on to study with well-known pianists Bernard Ringeissen and Janusz Olejniczack, and benefitted in particular from the teaching of the renowned Byron Janis in the United States, with whom he has a great affinity, performing with him in New York in early 2015. Already in 2010, Maxence had presented the European première of the film The Byron Janis Story. His vast repertoire for solo piano and piano and orchestra takes him from Bach to Rachmaninov, and from Mozart to Debussy, Beethoven, and Prokofiev, not forgetting contemporary music, whilst his painstaking approach has prompted him to delve deeper into his conception of the works of Chopin, with whom he nurtures a close relationship and to whom he is devoting his first CD. The winner of the Prix Maurice Lefranc for young musicians in Brussels and a prize laureate at international competitions in Oporto, Barcelona, Rome, and Épinal, this young Franco-Belgian musician, hailed by international critics, and much in demand in France and elsewhere, has performed with leading orchestras including the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Oporto National Orchestra, under the baton of prestigious conductors and in the some of the world’s great concert halls, from the Salzbourg Mozarteum to the Théâtre de la Monnaie and Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Philharmonic Hall in Warsaw and the Salle Gaveau in Paris. Maxence Pilchen’s performances have also been broadcast in the media from France to the United States and Asia.
In 2012, he also took part in a feature film by Philippe Claudel, Before the Winter Chill. Open to all types of music, his varied tastes have made him a popular performer at leading music festivals, including the Festival Chopin in Nohant, where he has been a regular guest since 2004. Maxence Pilchen has also worked with original 19th century pianos, exploring the subtlety of their nuances and their rich colours in order to develop them subsequently on modern instruments. He is supported by the Safran Foundation, where he was a prize laureate in 2014.
