Frank Dupree

Frank Dupree, who was born in Rastatt in 1991, was initially trained as a jazz drummer before turning to the piano, completing his soloist diploma with Sontraud Speidel at the Karlsruhe University of Music in 2019. He received important artistic guidance in masterclasses with Emanuel Ax, Gábor Takács-Nagy, Menahem Pressler, and Ferenc Rados. He also studied conducting with Peter Eötvös and Hans Zender and served as an assistant to Sir Simon Rattle and Mario Venzago. A particular focus of Dupree’s work lies in the performance of new and contemporary music, including Wolfgang Rihm’s Con Piano? Certo!, which he premiered in 2015 with the Badische Staatskapelle Karlsruhe. He has appeared with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris. In the 2025-26 season, he made his debuts with the BBC Philharmonic, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, and the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 2023 he has been Artistic Partner of the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra and frequently directs from the keyboard in his performances. As a chamber musician, he has collaborated with artists such as Pablo Barragán, Kian Soltani, Simon Höfele, Timothy Ridout, Vivi Vassileva, and Noa Wildschut. As a jazz artist, he performs with Jakob Krupp and Obi Jenne as the Frank Dupree Trio. He has appeared at festivals in Verbier, Davos, Montreux, and Schwetzingen, as well as the Heidelberg Spring Festival, the Ludwigsburg Festival, and the Beethovenfest Bonn. He received the Opus Klassik in 2018 for Antheil’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and the International Classical Music Award and Diapason d’or for Kapustin’s Piano Concerto Nos. 4 and 5. Most recently, in the spring of 2026, he released a recording of Daníel Bjarnason’s Piano Concerto.

One previous Lucerne Festival appearance: on 26 August 2021, when he appeared in a Debut concert featuring works by Ravel, Antheil, Adams, Kapustin, and Gershwin, as well as one of his own improvisations.

April 2026