The French lutenist Thomas Dunford made his stage debut at the Comédie-Française in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Since then, he has risen rapidly to fame, and performs regularly at prestigious concert halls. In 2018 he founded Ensemble Jupiter, which he directs from the lute. Their joint debut album Vivaldi won several awards. Ensemble Jupiter regularly tours to the great concert halls of Europe and the USA and to renowned festivals such as the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival.
As a sought-after soloist, Thomas Dunford performs with ensembles such as Les Arts Florissants, Arcangelo, the Cappella Mediterranea, Collegium Vocale Gent, Le Concert Spirituel, the Dunedin Consort, The English Concert, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Ensemble Pygmalion, La Serenissima and Les Siècles. He performs regularly in recital duos with the mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre, the countertenor Iestyn Davies and the harpsichordist Jean Rondeau.
Highlights of the 2025/26 season have included solo recitals at St Luke’s in London and at the Rheingau Music Festival, and duo recitals with the percussionist Keyvan Chemirani at the Schwetzingen SWR Festival and with the cellist Nicolas Altstaedt at Carnegie Hall, New York, and the Wigmore Hall. He made his debut at the 2025 BBC Proms with Ensemble Jupiter, and presented Handel’s Theodora with Lea Desandre in the title role at venues including the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
He has realized numerous chamber music projects with artists such as Paul Agnew, William Christie, Jonathan Cohen, Christophe Coin, Sabine Devieilhe, Joyce DiDonato, Philippe Herreweghe, Monica Huggett, Bobby McFerrin, Patricia Petibon, Trevor Pinnock, Skip Sempé, Sandrine Piau and Anne Sofie von Otter.
His first solo CD, Lachrimae (Alpha Classics label), won the Belgian Caecilia Prize in 2013; his album Labirinto d’amore won the Choc de Classica, and his 2018 Bach album was listed as Editor’s Choice by Gramophone magazine. More recently he released the Handel album Eternal Heaven with Lea Desandre and Iestyn Davies, the duo album Idylle with Lea Desandre and, in September 2025, the Dowland album Songs of Passion.
Thomas Dunford was born in Paris and at the age of nine received his first lute tuition from Claire Antonini. He went on to study at the Paris Conservatoire, and at the Schola Cantorum in Basel with Hopkinson Smith.
