A diamond with a thousand facets
(Olivier Bellamy, Classica)
A musical mind in action, reaching the very essence of the works (…) Utterly extraordinary.
(Christian Merlin, Le Figaro)
In 2019, Jean-Baptiste Doulcet won 4th Prize and the Audience Prize at the Marguerite Long Competition, chaired by Martha Argerich, as well as the Modern Times Prize at the Clara Haskil Competition, presided over by Christian Zacharias. Also awarded 2nd Prize at the 8th Nordic Piano Competition and honored by the Charles Oulmont Foundation, Jean-Baptiste Doulcet is considered by Classica magazine to be a rising star of French piano, alongside Alexandre Kantorow and Lucas Debargue. He offers a vision, a conception, supported by a remarkable pianistic quality—touch, attack, sense of rebound, mastery of contrast and silence (France tvinfo.fr).
Jean-Baptiste Doulcet performs regularly in France, notably in Paris (Salle Pleyel, Salle Gaveau, Salle Cortot, Saison Musicale des Invalides…), and appears at all major piano festivals: La Roque d’Anthéron, La Folle Journée, Lisztomanias, Piano en Valois, Piano aux Jacobins, Menton Festival, Pianoscope, Pianopolis, and the Nohant Festival. Internationally, he has performed in Denmark (Aarhus Kammermusik, Copenhagen Summer Festival, Oremandsgaard), Sweden, Finland, the United States with orchestra, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Morocco, and China. He also made his debut at the Philharmonie de Paris, the Granada Festival, and the BBC Proms with the Orchestre de Paris under Klaus Mäkelä in the solo piano version of Stravinsky’s Petrushka.
He released his first live recording, Beethoven/Schumann (Les Spiriades), interspersed with improvisations—an integral part of his musical activity. In 2022, he released a critically acclaimed album titled Un monde fantastique (Mirare), featuring works by Liszt and Schumann. In 2024, his third album Søleils Blancs, a collection of Nordic piano music (Mirare), brings together works by Grieg, Sibelius, and Carl Nielsen. In Spring 2026, a new album entirely dedicated to improvisation and cinema will be released.
A complete musician, Jean-Baptiste Doulcet also thrives in chamber music, performing with partners such as the Oistrakh String Quartet, Augustin Dumay, Alexandre Kantorow, Marc Coppey, the Hermès Quartet, the Arod Quartet, Fedor Rudin, the Hanson Quartet, Aurélien Pascal, and Raphaël Sévère.
As a composer, he has written no fewer than twenty works for solo instruments, chamber music, and ensemble, premiered by musicians such as Raphaël Pidoux and Alina Ibragimova. His Trilogy of the Passion, for an ensemble of twelve cellos based on poems by Goethe, is published by Alfonce Productions.
Trained at the CNSMD in Paris with Claire Désert in piano and chamber music, Thierry Escaich and Jean-François Zygel in improvisation, he also benefited from guidance by Emile Naoumoff, Tuija Hakkila, Dmitri Bashkirov, Hortense Cartier-Bresson, Epifanio Comis, Alexey Lebedev, and Michel Béroff, as well as advanced studies in Sweden with Julia Mustonen-Dahlkvist.
Finally, he is the co-founder, with his wife, of the French Connection Academy, an international academy based in Denmark for young musicians from around the world, creating a true cultural bridge between France and the Nordic countries.