Renaud Capuçon

Renaud Capuçon is among France's top violinists, with a repertory that includes contemporary music as well as French and German standards. He is a major star of the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Erato%22">Erato</a> label's roster.

Capuçon was born in Chambéry in the French Alps on January 27, 1976. He began studies at the local conservatory at age four. His brother is cellist <a href="spotify:artist:57ziOSBD3x0PhVbl7MXTgI">Gautier Capuçon</a>, and the two have performed and recorded together, notably in the <a href="spotify:artist:5wTAi7QkpP6kp8a54lmTOq">Brahms</a> Double Concerto in A minor, Op. 102. At 14, Renaud entered the Conservatoire de Paris (CNSMDP), studying there with <a href="spotify:artist:3jj9y3dcosBtZXO9d7JYFq">Gérard Poulet</a> and Veda Reynolds, winning top prizes in chamber music and violin upon graduation. He went on to study with <a href="spotify:artist:3HYV4ZdJ1LSOhPo5ehlEqF">Isaac Stern</a> and has played <a href="spotify:artist:3HYV4ZdJ1LSOhPo5ehlEqF">Stern</a>'s Guarneri del Gesù violin in performance. In 1996, he founded the Rencontres artistiques de Bel-Air festival in La Ravoire, near Chambéry, and headed it until 2010; in 2013, he established a new Easter festival in Aix-en-Provence. In 1997, Capuçon was named concertmaster of the European Youth Orchestra under conductor <a href="spotify:artist:6HclTVD03WSY6GUpN16BkP">Claudio Abbado</a>. He remained in the position for three years, by which time he had already launched his recording career on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Virgin+Classics%22">Virgin Classics</a> label with a 1999 recording of Schubert works for violin and piano.

In the early 2000s, Capuçon gained considerable celebrity as both a performer and recording artist. He often performs French music by the likes of <a href="spotify:artist:1C3sffOOvQNUwg4YIsvKqy">Franck</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:17hR0sYHpx7VYTMRfFUOmY">Ravel</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:3A5qNDgaeTFBD5pDxSvlJ0">Dutilleux</a>, but he is also at home in German music from Beethoven to <a href="spotify:artist:5wTAi7QkpP6kp8a54lmTOq">Brahms</a>. Capuçon also performs works by <a href="spotify:artist:7MjAFDEchgyC28I0asclTE">Kodály</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:5BGmPOD1iAQ3YCivnaoXhs">Halvorsen</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4gGTCN9q4L8H3xpo7W3tAx">Erwin Schulhoff</a>, and more, as well as contemporary works such as the 2002 Sonata for violin and cello by <a href="spotify:artist:5pKyFU3k7PoBq9qoC3bXj0">Éric Tanguy</a> and a 2015 violin concerto he commissioned from <a href="spotify:artist:1LqZaxmZNvkNyC5FaICGkW">Wolfgang Rihm</a>. Capuçon has performed with numerous major orchestras, including the <a href="spotify:artist:6uRJnvQ3f8whVnmeoecv5Z">Berlin Philharmonic</a> and the <a href="spotify:artist:0K23lQ2hSQAlxSEeZ05bjI">Boston Symphony</a>, and he is an enthusiastic chamber music player who has collaborated with pianists <a href="spotify:artist:1yTwwVZPzT44dkQYwitq7E">Nicholas Angelich</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:66MvLAvLznk5UOvASVGjk4">Martha Argerich</a>, and <a href="spotify:artist:0VkQgzGZUmazUc7ouT5S79">Hélène Grimaud</a>, among others. He has recorded some 70 albums, mostly for the related <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Virgin+Classics%22">Virgin Classics</a> and <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Erato%22">Erato</a> labels, including a complete cycle of Beethoven's violin sonatas with pianist <a href="spotify:artist:1hpAr3xZg2NpGFR59MO0Yl">Frank Braley</a>. In 2021, Capuçon issued three new albums, one of Elgar's Violin Concerto in B minor, Op. 61, with <a href="spotify:artist:4GQwgdcDQwqtcHICjUNndp">Simon Rattle</a> and the <a href="spotify:artist:5yxyJsFanEAuwSM5kOuZKc">London Symphony Orchestra</a>, one of chamber works by contemporary composer Michael Jarrell, and one of Arvo Pärt's Tabula Rasa, on which he conducted the <a href="spotify:artist:7q3JfRssj6LEV6Y2b6Je2T">Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne</a>. He returned with a pair of albums in 2022 and three more in 2023, the latter including a cycle of Mozart's violin concertos on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Deutsche+Grammophon%22">Deutsche Grammophon</a> label, on which he again conducted the <a href="spotify:artist:7q3JfRssj6LEV6Y2b6Je2T">Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne</a>. The year 2024 saw Capuçon issue the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Erato%22">Erato</a> album Les Choses de la Vie: Cinema II, his second album of film themes. ~ James Manheim, Rovi