Gautier Capuçon - Biography

Gautier Capuçon received support from BBT between 2004 and 2005. For an up-to-date biography go to www.harrisonparrott.com

Born in Chambéry in 1981, Gautier 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 in 2001. In 2004 he was granted a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award for musical excellence.

Capuçon is acclaimed internationally for his deeply expressive musicianship and virtuosity, as well as for the sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello. He performs each season with the world’s foremost conductors and instrumentalists, and is invited to play concertos with many of the world’s leading orchestras including Berlin Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra; Vienna Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and New York Philharmonic.

Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon and has won multiple awards and holds an extensive discography, including Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley, Shostakovich’s Cello Concertos with the Mariinsky Orchestra and Valery Gergiev; chamber music albums with Martha Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Renaud Capuçon and Gabriela Montero; and an album of favourite encores with Paris Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Douglas Boyd, and with Jérôme Ducros, piano. His latest release (2019) is the Schumann Cello Concerto with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Bernard Haitink.

As a true 21st-century ambassador for the cello, he is also founder and leader of the Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle at the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris – based in the new Auditorium designed by Frank Gehry – where he teaches the next generation of young cellists.

Last updated: November 2018

I would like first to tell you how much I am honoured to have been chosen by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust and to be part of this amazing and unique musical world club. This foundation is unique for us, young musicians starting more or less in our musical life. You are much more than just a foundation: I would say first that you are trusting us, which is so important for a young musician; you are advising us, and not only on a musical aspect; you are helping us in the realisation of projects to the highest degree. The BB Trust was such a precious help for me, they helped me to buy a fantastic bow, with which I can now produce such a deep and sensual sound on my Goffriler cello of 1701. I want to say thank you to all the members of the BB Trust who have chosen me, thank you for your help, thank you for your trust, thank you for being there.

Photographs by Gregory Batardon, Julien Mignot, Michael Tammaro