Renaud Capuçon

Renaud Capuçon (born 27 January 1976) is a French classical violinist. Since late 2016 he has been teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music. He is the older brother of cellist Gautier Capuçon.

Biography

Capuçon was born in Chambéry on 27 January 1976. He entered the Chambéry Conservatoire at the age of 4, and then the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse de Paris (CNSMDP) at the age of 14 where he studied under Gérard Poulet and Veda Reynolds. [1] Three years later he completed his studies there, winning first prize in both chamber music and violin.

Capuçon then entered several international competitions and joined the European Union Youth Orchestra, and then the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra as first violin under the direction of Claudio Abbado.

At the same time Capuçon launched his career as a soloist and chamber musician, playing with Nicholas Angelich, Jérôme Ducros, Frank Braley, Hélène Grimaud, Gérard Caussé, as well as with his younger brother Gautier, a cellist.

In 1996, Capuçon founded an annual festival at La Ravoire near Chambéry, the Rencontres artistiques de Bel-Air, which ended in 2010. It welcomed the most important chamber players including Jean-Pierre Wallez, Michel Dalberto, Martha Argerich, Stephen Kovacevich, Augustin Dumay, Gérard Caussé, Paul Meyer, Emmanuel Pahud, Katia and Marielle Labèque.

In 2013 Capuçon began directing an Easter festival in Aix-en-Provence.

Capuçon has recorded chamber works of Ravel, Schubert, Brahms, as well concertos for violin by Schumann and Mendelssohn under the direction of Daniel Harding.

After playing a Vuillaume, a Guadagnini and then a Stradivarius, in 2005 the Banque de Suisse Italienne BSI loaned Capuçon a Guarnerius, the "Panette" of 1737 that had belonged to Isaac Stern.