RIOPY

Jean-Philippe Rio-Py, known to the world as RIOPY, has never thought of music as a career. For him, it has always been a need. “From my earliest memories as a child,” he says, “it was the one thing that allowed me to escape, to dream, and to survive.”

Today he is a pianist and multi-instrumentalist composer who has racked up over 1.3 billion streams, sold-out concerts across continents, collaborated with Lana Del Rey, worked with brands like Giorgio Armani, Samsung and IKEA, alongside releasing a catalogue of albums that have topped the classical charts. But beneath the numbers lies something far more human: a story of resilience, survival, and a man who has discovered sound as a vessel for healing.

2026 marks the release of RIOPY’s fifth album “Be Love” – an appeal born out of the artist’s awe inspiring journey of rediscovery and defiance, and a refusal to let fear or illness silence him.

Born in rural France in the 1980s, RIOPY spent his early years inside a cult, cut off from the outside world. There were no lessons, no printed scores, no encouragement to pursue music. Yet when he found an abandoned piano, he taught himself to play by instinct, improvising melodies as a way to endure an environment built on control.

That ability to compose internally became a lifelong discipline. “Music was definitely a huge part of it, to keep me afloat,” he says. “I believe that the bad stuff that happens to you is also the good stuff that happens to you.”

At 18, he escaped the cult and left France behind. He had no money, no contacts, only the determination to build a life around music. Eventually he found his way to England, where he played in small clubs, taught himself English, and lived from gig to gig. Freedom came with its own chance encounters: Coldplay’s Chris Martin recognised his raw talent and gifted him a piano, a gesture that became a turning point.

Over time, RIOPY began composing for film and television. His music soon appeared in trailers for Academy Award-winning films including The Danish Girl, The Shape of Water, Mr Turner and The Sense of an Ending. The cinematic quality of his compositions naturally carried into his solo recordings. After signing with Warner Classics in 2017, he released his debut album the following year, and his career began to take flight.

RIOPY’s breakthrough came with Tree of Light in 2019. It reached number one on the Billboard Classical and New Age charts, and remained there for almost three years, with the track Ukiyo becoming certified Gold in the US. He followed with Bliss in 2021 and Thrive in 2023, albums that continued to expand his musical language, incorporating strings for the first time, and exploring resilience through sound. Alongside, he began releasing music under the wellness-focused brand TUNE YOUR MIND [by RIOPY] through albums of meditations, soundscapes, and piano tuned to alternative frequencies. These works weren’t side projects; they were part of the same mission. As he puts it: “Music has been part of my life since the beginning of my incarnation, serving as a way to heal myself and others.”

By the start of 2025, RIOPY had accumulated over 1.2 billion streams worldwide. He had collaborated with Lana Del Rey, partnerships across global campaigns with Amazon, Calm, The Mental Health Foundation and Peloton, and played to sold-out venues across Europe, North America, and Asia. Amazon Music celebrated RIOPY as one of the most streamed classical artists with a billboard towering over Times Square; however the moment when his career seemed unstoppable, his body gave way yet RIOPY started a relentless fight for recovery.

These experiences shaped his new album and gave him the courage to sing for the very first time. “It’s called Be Love because that’s the only thing that matters. Be love. And if we all love, then everything is fine,” he says simply. The album is a return to his roots of cinematic solo piano while introducing his voice and lyrics for the first time.“When you feel you’re dying, you just don’t give a shit anymore. But like, fuck it, I’m doing it. Whatever you feel, you do. Leap of faith. Just do what I love. And I’m loving it.”

Struggle led him back to singing and rediscovering the power of his own voice. “When I was ill these last two years, I needed to sing. I just needed it,” he admits. But now, with nothing to lose, he sang quietly to himself, finding relief. Later he discovered that singing was physically healing too: “My vagus nerve was down… and singing is a way to actually activate the vagus nerve. So singing is very good for you. Isn’t it funny, you just do things subconsciously, and they heal you?”

Be Love will see RIOPY sing for the very first time on a release. The composer-instrumentalist has utilised numerous ways to produce sound, just never his own voice. “I had this compulsion, this need to use my voice, because I think it’s one of the biggest fears I’ve had through my life. But it’s something I really enjoy doing.” He shares, “I started just whispering… it’s not a new me, it’s just an expansion of what I do. It felt right, because I needed to do this.”

Through partnering with Lana Del Rey, RIOPY discovered the powerful, symbiotic connection between singing and the piano, leading to tracks like “Feeling Safe”, “Long Way Home”, “Come With Me”.

Be Love was recorded on his dream instrument, the Steinway Spirio, and mixed by GRAMMY-winning producer Oli Jacobs (Peter Gabriel, Lana Del Rey, Van Morrison) who has masterfully entwined RIOPY’s evocative vocals with his delicate piano tracks. Alongside instrumentals are intimate ballads like Long Way Home, born directly from his experience of illness and recovery. The songs are threaded with whispers, chants, and layers of piano, creating a conversation between survival and transcendence.

Resilience is the through-line of his story, but RIOPY does not frame it in heroic terms. For him, resilience is ordinary, fragile, and built from daily choices. “Resilience often comes in small steps,” he says. “Sometimes we imagine it as this huge, powerful force, but in truth, it’s made up of tiny acts of courage. Choosing to keep going when it would be easier to stop.”

He does not claim to have all the answers. He admits to struggle, to fear, to days when he doubts. But in those moments, he returns to the piano and to the simplest of truths: “The only way to listen is here. It’s the heart.”

As he prepares to release Be Love, RIOPY stands at a new beginning. The child who once found freedom on an abandoned piano, the man who faced down illness and fear, now offers music that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. His mission is not to impress, but to connect. “I do everything to grow up,” he says, “to be more love, to be more compassionate, more empathetic. That’s the only way I think I can live my life.”

And so the story continues: one man at a piano, one voice rediscovered, one truth repeated in every note: Be Love.