Lucile Boulanger began playing the viola da gamba with Christine Plubeau at the age of five and went on to study with Ariane Maurette, Jérôme Hantaï and Christophe Coin at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse in Paris. She has won several international prizes (Bach-Abel competition in Köthen, Società Umanitaria in Milan and Musica Antiqua in Bruges).

Much in demand as a chamber musician, she has performed and recorded with Philippe Pierlot and the Ricercar Consort, François Lazarevitch, Justin Taylor, Pierre Gallon, L’Achéron and others, and regularly joins larger ensembles such as Raphaël Pichon’s Pygmalion ensemble. She also frequently gives recitals in France and abroad. Her recordings as a duo with keyboardist Arnaud de Pasquale for the Alpha label (Sonatas by Bach in 2012 and by C.P.E. Bach and Graun in 2015) have been widely acclaimed.

In 2018 she published a solo opus on harmonia mundi, devoted to Forqueray and her love of the Italian violin sonata. Released in 2022 by Alpha, her album for solo viola devoted to Bach and Abel won numerous awards (ffff Télérama, Diapason d’or de l’année, Scherzo Excepcionales…) and was a great success with the public.

The year 2022 also saw the birth of the show Phénix, the fruit of her collaboration with hip-hop choreographer Mourad Merzouki. In 2023, she was the first violinist to be nominated in the Instrumental Soloist category at the Victoires de la Musique awards. Refusing to see the viol as the vessel of a bygone aesthetic tradition, she works to expand and emancipate her instrument’s repertoire, not only by transcribing but also by commissioning contemporary works.

In 2025 she played for Marin Marais on the occasion of the release of his CD Voix Humaines. Marais: pièces inédites pour flûte. She was awarded the Victoire de la musique classique in the instrumental soloist category.