Month: June 2026

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Belgian pianist, cellist, composer, singer-songwriter and musicologist of Polish origin born in Namur in 1979, Grażyna Bienkowski follows a complete route between university, Conservatories and master classes which will give rise to a most atypical career.

Since 2005, deeply inspired by film music, this former freelancer from BOZAR and the La Monnaie Opera in Brussels composes and creates in a neo-classical and contemporary style, passing through jazz and songwriting with indie rock accents.

As a versatile pianist, Grażyna also performs in various artistic projects, both in the studio and on stage. This has led her to collaborate with Belgian and international artists such as Yan Pechin (FR), Patrice Soletti (FR), DAAN (BE), Jeanna Criscitiello (BE/US), Ken Stringfellow (US),…

In 2010, she released a self-produced solo piano EP (Antichambre). Then, she composed for duos and trios, heavily influenced by jazz and its harmonies. In 2015, songwriting was added to her repertoire. She wrote an entire album (Products of Love) for her female duo Wolves, introducing vocals into her writing for the first time. The album was released on the Liège-based label Homerecords.be in 2018. In 2021, she returned to her musical roots by revisiting Erik Satie with the release of the album “Vexations, vol. 19” on Off-Record Label. This album will be released physically in May 2023 by SOOND LABEL under the title “Vexations Revisited.” The world premiere will take place at the ARS MUSICA contemporary music festival in Brussels in November 2024.

Drawing on all her experiences and keen to remain active in changing the landscape of the music industry, she joined the Belgian Screen Composers Guild in 2017. This association is dedicated to film music and its composers, and she became the first woman member of its board in 2019. Grażyna then joined the composers’ forum and most recently, the Union of Belgian Composers during spring 2026.

Grażyna Bienkowski also composed all the solo piano music for “J’ai oublié d’être un homme” (I Forgot to be a man), a musical and literary performance dedicated to women poets, in collaboration with Belgian singer and actress Karin Clercq. The show toured various Belgian festivals and theaters between 2021 and 2024.

Her latest album “On the Edge of Sylvia” has been released in May 2024 on the French label December Square. It’s a true literary soundtrack whose central theme is the poetry and life of the American Sylvia Plath.  Inside, the listener can find her diverse musical influences as well as the artists who have marked her journey (DAAN, Ken Stringfellow, Jeanna Criscitiello, Douglas Kennedy).

This album, which she considers very personal, brings together her skills in the fields of composition, performance, and also in writing lyrics in English.

In 2025, she recorded the cello part for the piece Works of Art & Copies by Brussels-based American performance artist Jeanna Criscitiello. This commission from Laurence Petrone, curator of the Royal Museums of Art and History, accompanied an exhibition about their plaster casting workshops. The music blends acoustic instruments (primarily Grażyna’s cello) and electronic elements.

In 2026, Belgian conductor Jean-Paul Dessy commissioned a piece from her for the 12 musicians of the Musiques Nouvelles ensemble. T.E.N. (Temporal Eclipse of Now) was created in world premiere at Arsonic Mons and then in Flagey in Brussels at the end of May 2026.

Grażyna Bienkowski is currently in production on her next album, which will have a highly cinematic feel.

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Jean Paul Carrière, a non-professional musician, was born in Etterbeek (a municipality of Brussels) on March 29, 1949, to a father from Liège and a mother from Brussels of Flemish origin.
He was literally immersed in music from childhood. His father had learned (also as an amateur) to play the piano and organ and had composed several pieces for these instruments, as well as melodies. He therefore heard him play not only his own compositions but also other works on the piano and sing his melodies while accompanying himself.
He attended a Catholic school, which gave him the opportunity to be part of the choir and thus sing the entire Gregorian chant repertoire as well as polyphonic religious works.
Music was omnipresent in his home, both on the radio and on records. He began playing a little piano, then taught himself to play the accompaniment guitar.
Later, he studied singing at the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Academy and, at the Woluwe-Saint-Lambert Academy, piano, accompaniment guitar, and classical guitar, and even some chamber music. For several years, he accompanied himself on guitar at liturgical services at Don Bosco College and the Saint Luc Clinics in Woluwe-Saint-Lambert. From 2008 onward, he began composing for piano and gradually for other instruments; he then set poems to music and composed several songs. His catalog includes more than 230 works.