After studying at the Conservatoire de Toulouse, Paul Lay enters the Paris CNSM in the Jazz and Improvised Music department and works with Hervé Sellin, François Théberge, Glenn Ferris and Dre Paellemearts. He obtains his diploma (DFS) in 2006 and attends the advanced course in Jazz and Improvised Music at the CNSM with Ricardo del Fra. Prize-winner of several international competitions, he won the third prize at the International Piano-Jazz Competition in Moscow in 2005, the fifth prize (final) at the Martial Solal International Piano-Jazz Competition in 2006 and was finalist at the International Piano-Jazz Competition in Montreux in 2007. He obtains a scholarship from the Fondation Meyer and from Mécénat Musical Société Generale in 2007.
He is also sponsored by Cultures France (AFAA) and is part of their programme "Jazz Primeur". He performs in varied musical groups and in solo in France, Europe and Northern America, and in the festivals of Annecy, Biarritz, Jazz la Villette (Paris), as well as at the Berlin French Institute, the IAJE in New York. He is also on tour in Russia in solo in 2008.
