Renaud Capuçon

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, he was invited by Claudio Abbado to become concert master 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 Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic (VPO), London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Filarmonica della Scala, Boston Symphony and New York Philharmonic. His many conductor relationships include Gergiev, Barenboim, Bychkov, Dénève, Dohnanyi, Dudamel, Eschenbach, Haitink, Harding, Paavo Järvi, Nelsons, Nézet-Seguin, Roth, Shani, Ticciati, van Zweden and Long Yu.

A great commitment to chamber music has led him to collaborations with Argerich, Angelich, Barenboim, Bashmet, Bronfman, Buniatishvili, Grimaud, Hagen, Ma, Pires, Trifonov 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 two festivals, the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, since 2016, and the Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence, which he founded in 2013. From the 2021/22 season, Capuçon is also the Artistic Director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne; his first set of recordings with the ensemble entitled ‘Tabula Rasa’, released in September 2021, is an album devoted to the music of Arvo Pärt.

Capuçon has built an extensive discography and records exclusively with Erato/Warner Classics. Recent releases include a recording of Bartok’s two violin concerti with the LSO / Roth, Brahms and Berg with the VPO / Harding, and chamber music of Debussy. His latest recording, ‘Au Cinema’, featuring much loved selections from film music, releases in October 2018. His latest album ‘Un violin à Paris’, recorded with Guillaume Bellom and released in November 2021, features a large range of shorter works arranged for violin and piano.

In 2017, Capuçon founded a new ensemble, the Lausanne Soloists, comprised of current and former students of the Haute École de Musique de Lausanne, where he has held a professorship since 2014. He plays the Guarneri del Gesù ‘Panette’ (1737), which belonged to Isaac Stern. In June 2011 he was appointed ‘Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite’ and in March 2016 ‘Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur’ by the French Government.

Guillaume Bellom

Guillaume Bellom has one of the most unique paths to success of his generation, pursuing studies not just in piano but also in violin, all the way from the conservatoire of his hometown Besançon to the Conservatoire of Paris. It was in this institution that he decided to fully develop his activity as a pianist, under the inflfluence of striking personalities such as Nicholas Angelich and Hortense Cartier-Bresson.

In 2015, Guillaume was highly acclaimed as a finalist at the Clara Haskil competition, aptly named after the great Romanian pianist who herself was known for also playing the violin. His performance was awarded the !Modern Times” prize, for the best interpretation of a set work by Thomas Adés. That same year, he won the fifirst prize at the Épinal international competition and became laureate of the !L"Or du Rhin” foundation, before winning the Thierry Scherz prize at the !Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad” the next year. In 2017, he was nominated at the Victoires de la Musique in the !instrumental soloist revelations” category. He is also an associate artist at the Singer-Polignac Foundation in Paris since 2018.

Guillaume has performed as a soloist with the Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National d'Ile de France, the Chamber Orchestra of Lausanne, the Orchestre National de Montpellier, and the National Orchestra of Lorraine, under the baton of Jacques Mercier, Christian Zacharias, Pierre Dumoussaud, and Marzena Diakun. Deeply interested by chamber music, his mastery of a vast repertoire has made him a much sought-after musical partner, performing with artists such as with artists such as Renaud Capuçon, Paul Meyer, Yan Levionnois, Victor Julien-Laferrière, Ismël Margain, Anne Göckel, Adrien Bellom, and the Hermès, Girard, and Hanson quartets. He regularly performs in numerous festivals across the world, including the Festival international de piano de la Roque d'Anthéron, the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, the Piano aux Jacobins, the Festivalde Pâques and L"Août Musical in Deauville, the Festival des Arcs, the Shanghai Concert Hall, the Bombay Royal Opera, and the Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg.

His discography notably includes two albums dedicated to four-hands pieces by Schubert (rewarded by the prestigious “ffff” of French magazine Télérama) and Mozart, recorded with Ismaël Margain for Aparté, a cd with cellist Yan Levionnois (“ffff” of Télérama), released in 2017 for Fondamenta, and a solo cd around Schubert, Haydn, and Debussy, released in 2017 as well by Claves.