Renault Capuçon |

Renaud Capuçon

Renault Capuçon was born in Chambéry in 1976. He studied at the Higher National Conservatory of Music and Dance in Paris with Gerard Poulet and Veda Reynolds. In 1992 and 1993 he was awarded first prizes in violin and chamber music. In 1995 he also won the Prize of the Berlin Academy of Arts. Then he studied with Thomas Brandis in Berlin and with Isaac Stern.

Since 1997, at the invitation of Claudio Abbado, he has served as concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra for three summer seasons, playing under such famous musicians as Pierre Boulez, Seizi Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Möst and Claudio Abbado. In 2000 and 2005, Renaud Capuçon was nominated for the honorary French music award Victoires de la Musique (“Musical Victories”) in the nominations “Rising Star”, “Discovery of the Year” and “Soloist of the Year”, in 2006 he became a nominee for the J. Enescu Prize from French Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers (SACEM).

In November 2002, Renaud Capuçon made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic under Bernard Haitink, and in July 2004 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Christoph von Donagny. In 2004–2005, the musician toured China and Germany with the Orchester de Paris conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.

Since then, Renaud Capuçon has performed with many famous orchestras of the world: the National Orchestra of France, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Radio France, the orchestras of Paris, Lyon, Toulouse, the Berlin Philharmonic, the orchestras of the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Staatskapelle Dresden, the symphony orchestras of Berlin and Bamberg, the orchestras of the Bavarian (Munich) , North German (Hamburg), West German (Cologne) and Hessian Radio, Swedish Radio, Royal Danish Orchestra and Orchestra of French Switzerland, St. Martin-in-the-Fields Academy and Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, La Scala Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestra Academy of Santa Cecilia (Rome), Orchestra of the Opera Festival “Florence Musical May” (Florence) and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Monte Carlo, the Grand Symphony Orchestra named after P. I. Tchaikovsky, the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia named after E. F. Svetlanov, the State Symphony Orchestra orchestra “New Russia”, symphony and the orchestras of Boston, Washington, Houston, Montreal, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Philadelphia, the London Symphony, the Simon Bolivar Orchestra (Venezuela), the Tokyo Philharmonic and the NHK Symphony, the chamber orchestras of Europe, Lausanne, Zurich and Mahler. Among the conductors with whom Renaud Capuçon has collaborated are: Roberto Abbado, Marc Albrecht, Christian Arming, Yuri Bashmet, Lionel Brengier, Frans Bruggen, Semyon Bychkov, Hugh Wolf, Hans Graf, Thomas Dausgaard, Christoph von Donagny, Gustavo Dudamel, Dennis Russell Davies, Charles Dutoit, Armand and Philippe Jordan, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Jean-Claude Casadesus, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Emmanuel Krivin, Kurt Mazur, Mark Minkowski, Ludovic Morlot, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andris Nelsons, David Robertson, Leonard Slatkin, Tugan Sokhiev, Robert Ticciati, Geoffrey Tate, Vladimir Fedoseev, Ivan Fischer, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Günter Herbig, Myung-Wun Chung, Mikael Schoenwandt, Christoph Eschenbach, Vladimir Jurowski, Christian, Paavo and Neeme Järvi…

In 2011, the violinist toured the United States with the China Philharmonic Orchestra and Long Yu, performed in China with the Guangzhou and Shanghai Symphony Orchestras conducted by Klaus Peter Flohr, and performed a program of Beethoven’s Violin Sonatas with pianist Frank Brale in Europe, Singapore and Hong Kong.

His recent performances include concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding, the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Christoph von Dohnanyi, the Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Juraj Walchuga, the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Myung-Vun Chung, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, the Cologne Radio Orchestra conducted by Jukki-Pekka Saraste, the National Orchestra of France conducted by Daniele Gatti. He took part in the world premiere of P. Dusapin’s Violin Concerto with the Cologne Radio Orchestra. He performed a cycle of concerts from the music of J. Brahms and G. Fauré at the Vienna Musikverein.

Renaud Capuçon has performed in chamber programs with such famous musicians as Nicholas Angelich, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Elena Bashkirova, Yuri Bashmet, Frank Brale, Efim Bronfman, Maxim Vengerov, Hélène Grimaud, Natalia Gutman, Gauthier Capuçon, Gerard Cosse, Katya and Mariel Labeque, Mischa Maisky, Paul Meyer, Truls Merck, Emmanuel Pahut, Maria Joao Pires, Mikhail Pletnev, Vadim Repin, Antoine Tamesti, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Myung-Vun Chung.

The musician is a frequent guest of prestigious music festivals: Mostly Mozart in London, festivals in Salburg, Edinburgh, Berlin, Jerusalem, Ludwigsburg, Rheingau, Schwarzenberg (Germany), Lockenhaus (Austria), Stavanger (Norway), Lucerne, Lugano, Verbier, Gstaade, Montreux (Switzerland), in the Canary Islands, in San Sebastian (Spain), Stresa, Brescia-Bergamo (Italy), Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d’Antherone, Menton, Saint-Denis, Strasbourg (France), in Hollywood and Tanglewood (USA), Yuri Bashmet in Sochi… He is the founder and artistic director of the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence.

Renault Capuçon has an extensive discography. He is an EMI/Virgin Classics exclusive artist. Under this label, CDs with works by Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Berlioz, Brahms, Saint-Saens, Milhaud, Ravel, Poulenc, Debussy, Dutilleux, Berg, Korngold and Vasks also took part in the recording Gauthier Capuçon, Martha Argerich, Frank Bralay, Nicolas Angelic, Gérard Cossé, Laurence Ferrari, Jérôme Ducrot, German Chamber Orchestra Bremen and Mahler Chamber Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding, Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Myung-Vun Chung, Scottish Chamber Orchestra conducted conducted by Louis Langre, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding, Ebene Quartet.

Renaud Capuçon’s albums have received prestigious awards: the Grand Prix du Disque from the Charles Cros Academy and the German Critics’ Prize, as well as the critics’ choice of Gramophone, Diapason, Monde de la Musique, Fono forum, Sterne des Monates magazines.

Renaud Capuçon plays a Guarneri del Gesu Panette (1737), formerly owned by Isaac Stern, which was purchased for the musician by the Bank of Italian Switzerland.

In June 2011, the violinist became a holder of the National Order of Merit of France.