Jean-Michel Blais

Jean-Michel Blais is a Montreal-based pianist, composer, and performer signed to Arts & Crafts and Mercury KX (Decca). Since the release of his acclaimed debut album Il (2016),the classically trained Blais has defined his own music by a reverent intimacy he shares with his instrument, the piano. Il was named one of TIME's Top 10 Albums of the Year, launching an international career that has since amassed millions of streams. A two-time Juno nominee and multiple Polaris Music Prize shortlisted artist, Blais has performed for nearly 40,000 people at the Montreal International Jazz Festival and collaborated with ensembles including Orchestre de l'Agora and Orchestre symphonique de Québec. His acclaimed catalogue spans the ambient textures of Dans ma main (2018), the Félix Award-winning orchestral work aubades (2022), the serenades EP (2023), the Cannes award-winning Matthias & Maxime soundtrack, and désert (2025), created with American harpist Lara Somogyi. His fourth solo album, mirador, releasing in September 2026. Blais is poised to deliver an epic, delving into a beneath-the-surface odyssey that spans choirs, strings, and the music of the Andes – running from Spanish caves to Estonian forests and back again to his hometown of tiny Nicolet, Québec. mirador finds the enigmatic Blais opening the listeners’ gaze onto his wide, wondrous, and personal world – an aspirational journey in which he exchanges contemporary minimalism for a light, generous maximalism.