The French violinist Renaud Capuçon is not only considered one of the leading violinists and chamber musicians of our day, with a wide-ranging repertory, but is also active as a conductor, festival director and pedagogue.
Born in Chambéry, he began his musical training aged 14 at the Paris Conservatoire. During his studies he won numerous awards. He subsequently studied in Berlin with Thomas Brandis and Isaac Stern. In 1997 Claudio Abbado appointed him concert master of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, where for three years he worked with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa and Franz Welser-Möst. Since then, he has established himself as one of the most important violinists working today.
He has performed with leading orchestras such as the Berlin, Munich, Vienna and New York Philharmonics, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris, the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra under conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Christoph von Dohnányi, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.
He has appeared at festivals including those of Edinburgh, Berlin, Lucerne, Verbier, Tanglewood and Salzburg, performing with chamber music partners such as Nicholas Angelich, Martha Argerich, Yuri Bashmet, Yefim Bronfman, Khatia Buniatishvili, Hélène Grimaud, Maria João Pires and Yuja Wang, as well as his brother, cellist Gautier Capuçon.
Highlights in 2024/25 have included his performance with Gautier Capuçon for the re-opening of the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris and the world premiere of Nico Muhly’s Violin Concerto with the New York Philharmonic under Marin Alsop.
Renaud Capuçon is artistic director of the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, which he founded, of the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad and the Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, and since 2021 of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne. At the University of Music in Lausanne, where he has taught since 2014, he founded the Ensemble Lausanne Soloists.
As an exclusive artist with Erato / Warner Classics he amassed an extensive discography. In 2022 he moved to Deutsche Grammophon. His releases include three albums of works by Mozart, works by Fauré and, most recently, a compendium of works by Richard Strauss.
Renaud Capuçon was appointed Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Mérite in 2011 and, in 2016, Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur.
Renaud Capuçon plays the Guarneri violin ‘Panette’ of 1737, which previously belonged to Isaac Stern.
