Born in Chambéry in 1976, Renaud Capuçon began his studies at the National Conservatory of Music in Paris at the age of 14, where he won numerous awards during his five years there. Then he moved to Berlin to study with Thomas Brandis and Isaac Stern and received the award from the Berliner Akademie der Künste. In 1997, he was chosen by Claudio Abbado to become Konzertmeister of Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, for three summers, working with chefs like Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Franz Welser-Möst and Claudio Abbado. Renaud Capuçon established himself as a very high level soloist. He plays with major orchestras: Berliner Philharmoniker, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Filarmonica della Scala, London Symphony Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Wiener Philharmoniker, Orchester de Paris, Orchester National de France and Orchester Philharmonique de Radio France. He works with many chefs, such as Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Ernő Dohnányi, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Long Yu, Paavo Järvi, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, François-Xavier Roth, Lahav Shani, Robin Ticciati, Jaap van Zweden… His commitment to chamber music led him to collaborate with Martha Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Daniel Barenboim, Yuri Bashmet, Yefim Bronfman, Khatia Buniatishvili, Hélène Grimaud, Maria João Pires, Daniil Trifonov, Yo-Yo Ma and Yuja Wang, as well as with his brother, the cellist Gautier Capuçon.
He has notably performed at festivals in Berlin, Lucerne, Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d’Anthéron, San Sebastián, Stresa, Salzburg, Edinburgh and Tanglewood. He also represented France in some of the most prestigious international events: in 2018-2019, he performed with Yo-Yo Ma under the Arc de Triomphe for the commemoration of the Armistice in the presence of more than 80 chefs state; he also played at the G7 summit in Biarritz. Renaud Capuçon is the artistic director of two festivals: the Gstaad Music Summits, since 2016, and the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival, which he founded in 2013. His engagements with orchestra in 2019-2020 include concerts with the Bayerischen Rundfunks Symphony, the Filarmonica della Scala, the Wiener Symphoniker, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He toured the United States with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and produced a world violin concerto by Michael Jarrell with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra. He will perform in recital at the Salzburger Festspiele, Musikverein and Wigmore Hall; he will play the complete cycle of Beethoven’s trios with Gautier Capuçon and Frank Braley and will record all of Mozart’s violin and piano sonatas live with Kit Armstrong. Renaud Capuçon has built a large discography and records exclusively with Erato / Warner Classics. His recent publications include Bach sonatas with David Fray, Dvořák and Tchaikovsky trios with Lahav Shani and Kian Soltani live from the Festival d’Aix, Bartók’s two violin concerti with the London Symphony Orchestra and François-Xavier Roth , a Brahms and Berg disc with the Wiener Philharmoniker and Daniel Harding and works of chamber music by Debussy. His disc Au cinema, including a selection of film scores, was released in October 2018 and received great critical success.
In 2017, Renaud Capuçon founded a new ensemble, the Lausanne Soloists, composed of current and former students of the Haute École de musique de Lausanne, where he has been a professor since 2014. In July 2019, he became the artistic director of the International Menuhin Music Academy, resident orchestra of Le Rosey. In 2020 he was elected conductor and artistic director of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra from 2021-2022, for four seasons, succeeding Joshua Weilerstein.
He plays the Guarneri del Gesù “Panette” (1737) which belonged to Isaac Stern. He was appointed Knight of the National Order of Merit in June 2011 and Knight of the Legion of Honor in March 2016.