Violin
Renaud Capuçon
Born in Chambéry in 1976, Renaud Capuçon studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris under Gérard Poulet and Veda Reynolds. In 1998, Claudio Abbado chose him as concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, and he refined his musical education alongside Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, and Franz Welser-Möst. As a soloist, Renaud Capuçon performs with the foremost conductors and the most prestigious orchestras, appearing at renowned festivals such as Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d’Anthéron, the Hollywood Bowl, Gstaad, Lucerne, Verbier, Salzburg, Rheingau, and the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest.
Regarded as one of today's most prominent soloists, violinist Renaud Capuçon collaborates with internationally acclaimed orchestras including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Wiener Philharmoniker, and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.
He is also an avid chamber musician, performing alongside dedicated partners such as Martha Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Kit Armstrong, Khatia Buniatishvili, Frank Braley, Yefim Bronfman, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Maria João Pires, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yuri Bashmet, Myung-Whun Chung, Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, and Mikhail Pletnev. For the past fifteen years, Renaud Capuçon has also directed leading chamber ensembles from the violin.
He serves as Artistic Director of the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Festival de Pâques d’Aix-en-Provence, and the Rencontres Musicales d’Évian, and has led the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne since 2021. In 2022, he leveraged his prominence to support a new generation of musicians by launching Beau Soir Productions.
His discography includes nearly thirty recordings, notably Bartók’s Violin Concertos with the London Symphony Orchestra under François-Xavier Roth, as well as an album titled "Cinéma", dedicated to film music and released in October 2018. In September 2022, he began a new collaboration with Deutsche Grammophon and Universal Music—where he now exclusively releases his recordings—starting with a complete Mozart survey. In February 2023, he released his second film music album, "Cinéma II – Les Choses de la Vie", followed in 2025 by a Richard Strauss box set. In 2026, he released Bach's Sonatas and Partitas, a double album featuring works considered among the most demanding in the violin repertoire.
He plays the Guarneri del Gesù "Panette" (1737), which previously belonged to Isaac Stern.
He was named Chevalier of the National Order of Merit in June 2011, Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in March 2016, and Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters in December 2021. He has also been a UNESCO Artist for Peace since September 2020 and was promoted to Officer of the National Order of Merit in December 2023.