Thomas Dunford

Born in Paris in 1988, the French lutenist Thomas Dunford comes from a family of musicians: both parents played the viola da gamba professionally. He himself discovered the lute at the age of nine and received lessons from Claire Antonini, later studying with Charles-Édouard Fantin at the Paris Conservatoire and with Hopkinson Smith at the Schola Cantorum in Basel. Master classes led him to Rolf Lislevand, Julian Bream, and Paul O’Dette, among other figures. Thomas Dunford began his professional career at the age of just 15 when he played the role of the lutenist in the production La Nuit des Rois de Shakespeare at the Comédie française from 2003 to 2005. He then played regularly in such ensembles as Les Arts Florissants, the Academy of Ancient Music, Pygmalion, and the Cappella Mediterranea, which he also conducted on several occasions. He has additionally conducted the Opéra Lafayette in Washington, D.C., since 2017. He founded his own ensemble, Jupiter, in 2018. Thomas Dunford has appeared at Carnegie Hall and the Frick Collection in New York, the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., the Vancouver Recital Society, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, the Bozar in Brussels, and the Philharmonie in Paris and Berlin. The Leipzig Bach Festival, the Folles Journées de Nantes and the festivals of Saintes, Montpellier, and Utrecht have also invited him to perform. He has made additional appearances in India, China, Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia. In the 2023-24 season, he toured the United States, Japan, and several European cities with Lea Desandre. In addition to his award-winning CDs with Jupiter, Thomas Dunford has made solo recordings: Lacrimae (2012), Labirinto d’amore (2014), and Suites by Johann Sebastian Bach (2018). In addition to Lea Desandre, his musical partners include the harpsichordist Jean Rondeau; the singers Anne Sofie von Otter, Patricia Petibon, Sandrine Piau, and Anna Prohaska; and the violinists Nicola Benedetti and Isabelle Faust. 

May 2024