“Marie François is a fiery force at the piano—a young Belgian concert artist who turns every performance into a gallery of the unseen. With eighty-eight keys and ten tireless fingers, she shapes narratives that reach beyond the instrument, drawing listeners into a world where music becomes story. Her energy is contagious—sometimes verging on impatience—because she wants everyone to feel what classical music can do. Whether it’s elegant Clementi, immersive Chopin, sparkling four-hands, or a romantic concerto, no repertoire feels out of reach. She forges her own path with a signature that rings crystal clear: bold, brave and lovable.”

Marie François is a Belgian concert pianist whose performances have taken her across Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Luxembourg, Italy, Greece, South Africa, Ukraine, Romania, the United Kingdom, and the United States. She has appeared at leading venues and festivals including the Concertgebouw (Amsterdam), the Romanian Athenaeum (Bucharest), the Queen Elisabeth Hall (Antwerp), B-Classic (Belgium), the Piano Festival in Miami, the Schiermonnikoog Festival (Netherlands), and the Aurora Music Festival (Sweden). Highlights include Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto with Dirk Brossé at Muziekcentrum De Bijloke (Ghent), collaborations with conductor Herman Engels, Rik Ghesquière, a solo recital at Piano Days 2024 in Flagey, and a performance at the 2024 Martha Argerich Festival in Hamburg with violinist Geza Hosszu-Legocky.

Her debut album, Eclectic/Being Me with Challenge Records International (2019), was selected two weeks after release as one of Apple Music’s top 10 classical albums of the month worldwide, alongside artists such as Boris Giltburg and Renaud Capuçon. She followed with the EP Memories of Tomorrow (2021) and the four-hands album Amitié musicale à quatre mains with French pianist Simon Adda-Reyss (2024). Her project Who doesn’t love Chopin’s Nocturnes—sparked by a month-long immersion in Warsaw in 2023 and documented in a daily podcast that won the Belgian Podcast Award for Best Independent Story—culminated in complete recordings of the Nocturnes, released worldwide in September 2025. 

During the 2016 piano edition of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, François served on De Zes/Les Six, the young pianists’ jury for Canvas and Klara. She frequently contributes opinion pieces, appears on television panels, hosted her own program on Eclips TV, created the podcast Musings with Marie, and is regularly invited to discuss classical music on television and radio.

François began piano at the age of four with, earned her Bachelor’s degree with Joop Celis at the Conservatory of Maastricht, completed her Master’s in Belgium with Alan Weiss, and pursued postgraduate studies with Polina Leschenko. She refined her artistry at the Scuola di Musica di Fiesole with Elisso Virsaladze, and participated in masterclasses with Elisabeth Leonskaja, Jan Wijn, Pavel Gililov, Alexander Melnikov, Yoheved Kaplinsky, Anton Nell, Alexander Moutouzkine, and Peter Donohoe, as well as four summers at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena with Lilya Zilberstein. In 2024 she was a Stipendiat of the Bayreuth Festival.

François performs with artists such as violinist Geza Hosszu Legocky, pianist Tony Yike Yang & Soprano Kelly Poukens, with whom she won the Vrienden van het Lied prize in The Netherlands.

François is the first Classical Yamaha Artist in the Benelux.