Jean-Michel Blais

Jean-Michel Blais is a Montréal-based pianist and composer whose fourth album mirador expands beyond his earlier minimalist approach into a maximalist soundscape incorporating choral voices, strings, and Andean musical traditions. With over 400 million streams and a career marked by some of the most acclaimed concerts of recent years, Blais draws on his childhood in Nicolet, Québec, Latin American travels, a residency at the Arvo Pärt Centre in Estonia, and his identity as a queer person living with Tourette syndrome. He taught himself orchestration and Spanish, spent years volunteering and studying along the Andes, and has collaborated with musicians from the ancient music, classical, and world music spheres.