Gautier Capuçon

Gautier Capuçon is recognised the world over as one of the most charismatic, enchanting and exuberant musicians performing today. He receives consistently high critical praise for his performances with the major orchestras and conductors across the globe, as well as for his recital and chamber music work at many of the world’s most prestigious venues and festivals. A prolific recording artist, he records exclusively for Erato.

Born in Chambéry in 1981, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine, and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. The winner of various first prizes in many leading international competitions, including the International André Navarra Prize, Capuçon was named ‘New Talent of the Year’ by Victoires de la Musique (the French equivalent of a Grammy) in 2001; in 2004 he received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award; he has since received several Echo Klassik awards.

Capuçon is a favourite of conductors at the highest level, including Gergiev, Bychkov, Haitink, Eschenbach, Nézet-Seguin. A regular with many of the world’s finest orchestras, in recent seasons he has performed with orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Concertgebouw Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Mariinsky Orchestra, Tonhalle, Munich Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Sydney Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony and New York Philharmonic orchestras, as well as all of the major orchestras across France. Highlights of his 14/15 season include European tours with the London Symphony Orchestra/Sir John Eliot Gardiner and Oslo Philharmonic/ Petrenko, and concerts with Leipzig Gewandhaus/Krivine, Vienna Philharmonic/Orozco-Estrada, Los Angeles Philharmonic/Dudamel, Cleveland Orchestra/Bringuier, San Francisco Symphony/ Dutoit and Boston Symphony/Nelsons.

A regular recital and chamber musician, Capuçon appears in the major halls and festivals across Europe, and every year at the Verbier Festival and at Project Martha Argerich, Lugano, performing with any of the world’s leading artists such as Barenboim, Bashmet, Batiashvili, Caussé, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Kavakos, Kirchschlager, Pletnev, Pressler, Thibaudet, his brother Renaud and the Artemis and Ebène Quartets. Recent higlights included his debut recital at the Barbican Centre with Nicholas Angelich, a return to Wigmore Hall with Frank Braley, the 14th July Bastille Day concert under the Eiffel Tower, broadcast to millions around the world, and his role as a judge and mentor in the Shine-produced French television competition for talented youngsters, Prodiges.

Capuçon records exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics). His recordings include the Shostakovich Cello Concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky orchestra, the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations and Prokofiev Sinfonia Concertante with the same forces, Dvořák Cello Concerto with Frankfurt Radio Symphony/Paavo Järvi, the Brahms Double Concerto with his brother Renaud and Mahler Youth Orchestra/Chung, and the Haydn Cello Concertos with Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Harding. He has recorded several discs of chamber music with Martha Argerich, Frank Braley, Nicholas Angelich, Renaud and others, and the Rachmaninov and Prokofiev Cello Sonatas with Gabriela Montero.

Gautier Capuçon is an Ambassador for Zegna & Music project, which was founded in 1997 as a philanthropic activity to promote music and its values. In October 2014 he launched the 'Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle' at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, which invites selected students to Paris to work with Capuçon on a monthly basis in the foundation’s new Auditorium designed by Frank Gehry. Gautier Capuçon plays a 1701 Matteo Goffriller.