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French violinist Renaud Capuçon is firmly established internationally as a major soloist, recitalist, and chamber musician. He is known and loved for his poise, depth of tone and virtuosity, and he works with the world’s most prestigious orchestras, artists, venues, and festivals.
Born in Chambéry in 1976, Renaud Capuçon began his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at the age of fourteen, winning numerous awards during his five years there. Following this, Capuçon moved to Berlin to study with Thomas Brandis and Isaac Stern and was awarded the Prize of the Berlin Academy of Arts. In 1997, Claudio Abbado invited him to become concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, which he led for three summers, working with conductors including Boulez, Ozawa, Welser-Möst, and Claudio Abbado.
Since then, Capuçon has established himself as a soloist at the very highest level. He performs with leading orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Filarmonica della Scala, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. His many conductor relationships include Barenboim, Bychkov, Dénève, Dohnanyi, Dudamel, Eschenbach, Haitink, Harding, Long Yu, Paavo Järvi, Nelsons, Nézet-Seguin, Roth, Shani, Ticciati, van Zweden. In the 22/23 season, Capuçon made his Carnegie Hall debut to fervent ovation in a play-direct performance with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. Highlights in the upcoming season include a return to the Chicago Symphony under Semyon Bychkov for performances of Saint Saëns’ Violin Concerto No. 3.
A great commitment to chamber music has led him to collaborations with Argerich, Angelich, Barenboim, Bashmet, Bronfman, Buniatishvili, Grimaud, Hagen, Levit, Ma, Pires, Trifonov, Yo-Yo Ma and Yuja Wang, as well as with his brother, cellist Gautier Capuçon, and have taken him, among others, to the Berlin, Lucerne, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, Roque d’Anthéron, San Sebastián, Stresa, Salzburg, Edinburgh International and Tanglewood festivals. Capuçon has also represented France at some of the world’s most prestigious international events: he has performed with Yo-Yo Ma under the Arc de Triomphe for the official commemoration of Armistice Day in the presence of more than 80 heads of state and played for world leaders at the G7 Summit in Biarritz.
Capuçon is the Artistic Director of three festivals: the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad since 2016, the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence, which he founded in 2013, and, most recently, the Rencontres Musicales Festival in Évian from 2023. Since 2021, he has also been the Artistic Director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne.
Capuçon has built an extensive discography and, up until recently, recorded exclusively with Erato/Warner Classics. In September 2022, Capuçon announced his new partnership with Deutsche Grammophon, and two months later released his first album with the yellow label – a collection of violin sonatas performed with Martha Argerich and recorded at his Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence. Recent releases with Erato include a recording of Elgar’s Violin Concerto and Violin Sonata with the LSO conducted by Sir Simon Rattle, an album with Guillaume Bellom featuring an extensive range of shorter works arranged for violin and piano, and, most recently, recordings of violin concertos by Vivaldi and Saint-Georges with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. His album Au Cinema, featuring much loved selections from film music, was released to critical acclaim in October 2018.
Capuçon plays the Guarneri del Gesù 'Panette' (1737), which belonged to Isaac Stern. In June 2011, he was appointed 'Chevalier de l'Ordre National du Mérite' and in March 2016 'Chevalier de la Légion d'honneur' by the French Government.