Renaud Capuçon

Born in 1976 in Chambéry (Rhône-Alpes), the violinist Renaud Capuçon studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Gérard Poulet and Veda Rey-nolds. He subsequently went to Berlin to continue his training with Thomas Brandis and also received valuable advice from Isaac Stern. In 1997 Claudio Abbado engaged him as concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, to which he belonged for three years. At the same time, Ca-puçon developed his solo career, which soon took him to the leading orchestras in Europe and America. Since then he has collaborated with the Berlin Philharmonic and Bernard Haitink, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Christoph von Dohnányi, the Orchestre de Paris and Paavo Järvi, the Orchestre National de France and Daniele Gatti, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel. In the 2017-18 season, he concertized with the London Symphony Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic. Together with Kit Armstrong, he also performed the complete Mozart violin sonatas at the Boulez Saal in Berlin. Chamber music in fact plays an important role for Capuçon, and he has partnered with Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Franck Braley, Hélène Grimaud, Denis Kozhukhin, Daniil Trifonov, and of course his brother, the cellist Gautier Capuçon. He is Artistic Director of the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival, the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, and Lausanne Soloists. Capuçon’s recordings have won numerous awards; his most recent release, which appeared in the spring of 2018, is an account of the two Bartók concertos. Renaud Capuçon was named Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2011 and Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur in 2016. He plays a Guarneri del Gesù, the “Panette,” which was built in 1737 and which previously belonged to Isaac Stern.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 11 April 2000 playing Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante K. 364, with Stefan Anton Reck conducting the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra.

July 2018