I enjoy artists such as Ye and Joji, but piano-based neoclassical music remains at the center of my playlists. My affection for it runs deep enough that I traveled to Tokyo in 2025 to see the Ryuichi Sakamoto memorial exhibition. Today I want to introduce the neoclassical artist I listen to most often: Joep Beving, whose striking appearance always brings Jesus to mind.

Delicate melodies from a 2.07-meter frame: Beving’s beginnings

Joep Beving was born on January 9, 1976, in Doetinchem, the Netherlands. Standing an unmistakable 2.07 meters tall, he reportedly developed a love of music early in life. He took private piano lessons until he was fourteen and, influenced by grunge, also played drums during high school.

He went on to study piano at a conservatory, but a repetitive strain injury in his wrist and doubts about the demands of rigorous technical practice led him to leave. Instead, he studied public policy and administration at the University of Twente.

A global debut that began with workplace stress

After university he followed a more conventional working life. In 2014, however, he faced intense stress at work. According to his official Deutsche Grammophon biography, he returned to the piano in search of peace. That decision changed his life.

In 2015 he self-released his debut album, Solipsism, initially for family and friends. Its appearance on Spotify playlists brought it to millions of listeners around the world and eventually led to a contract with Deutsche Grammophon. He describes his work as simple music for complex emotions. His intuitive, warm playing, without displays of virtuosity, has comforted many people.

Liminal: ecological thinking at the threshold

Released on March 20, 2026, Liminal questions humanity’s place within a larger ecosystem, beyond a human-centered view of the world. It draws inspiration from French scholar Guillaume Logé’s book Wild Renaissance.

The fifteen-track album approaches nature as a partner in creation rather than something humans must control. The official album description places it in a liminal space between carefully structured composition and intuitive sounds that flow and fade.

Control and intuition, acoustic and electronic

The album subtly weaves electronics into solo piano. In tracks such as “When humans do algorythms,” repeated computer pulses and human performance seem to dance together. I hear a resonance that moves beyond familiar divisions between machine and life, logic and mystery.

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More writing on music

A Ryuichi Sakamoto retrospective, Part 0 (Korean draft)
Joji: an artist on a melancholy rainbow spectrum (Korean draft)