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Gautier
Capuçon
Cello
Gautier Capuçon
Gautier Capuçon is one of the foremost cello ambassadors in the 21st century. Performing worldwide with leading conductors and instrumentalists, he also created the “Fondation Gautier Capuçon” in January 2022, dedicated to supporting outstanding young musicians between the ages of 18 and 25 as they launch their careers, extending his strong commitment to education and mentorship. As of now, the Foundation is counting 36 laureates.
Winner of numerous awards, Capuçon is celebrated for the depth and intensity of his interpretations, his dazzling virtuosity, and the rich, resonant sound.
In
the summer of 2020, during the pandemic, Capuçon launched “Un été en France”, a
musical journey that brought live performances to families across the country.
He repeated the project in 2021, this time also featuring young
instrumentalists and dancers in his concerts. To date, the initiative has
gathered more than 145.000 people in audience, presented 80 concerts in 66
towns and villages, and showcased 69 emerging artists alongside him. Five
documentaries have already been devoted to the tour, with the last one
broadcasted between Christmas and New Year 2024.
Recent
orchestral highlights include performances with the Vienna Philharmonic
(Christian Thielemann), Gewandhausorchester Leipzig (Andris Nelsons),
Philadelphia Orchestra (Stéphane Denève), and Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra
(Christoph Koncz), as well as tours with the Filarmonica della Scala Milan
(Chailly), hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt (Altinoglu), and the Rotterdam
Philharmonic with Lahav Shani.
Capuçon
recently toured Europe with Evgeny Kissin, concluding with a performance at
Carnegie Hall. He also embarked on a separate tour with Rudolf Buchbinder,
Renaud Capuçon, and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider; along concerts with Alexandre
Kantorow and the Hagen Quartett. His chamber music partners have included
Nicholas Angelich, Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Frank Braley, Jérôme
Ducros, Daniil Trifonov, Yuja Wang, Renaud Capuçon, Augustin Hadelich, Leonidas
Kavakos, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Menahem Pressler,
and the Artemis, Ébène, Hagen, and Modigliani Quartets.
He
has also toured with “Capucelli” – a seven-cello ensemble he founded with
alumni of his “Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle” – through Europe and Taiwan.
In
the 2025/26 season, Capuçon will tour with Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill
Petrenko – starting with the Europakonzert from Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt.
As this season’s Artist-in-Residence with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden,
he will perform under the batons of Finnegan Downie Dear, Andrés Orozco-Estrada
and Daniele Gatti, including the New-Year’s-Eve concert and a European tour.
Further orchestral engagements during the season include appearances with the
hr-Sinfonieorchester (Alain Altinoglu) at both the Dvořák Prague Festival’s
Opening Concert and the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, the Orchestre de
Paris (Andrés Orozco-Estrada), the San Francisco Symphony (Simone Young), the
Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich (Paavo Järvi), as well as concerts across Asia.
Chamber music highlights include a trio tour with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Lisa
Batiashvili across the most prestigious European concert venues and a recital
tour with Nikolai Lugansky.
Always
eager to explore and expand the cello repertoire, Capuçon performs both great
classics and new works each season. Current projects include music by Lera
Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Bryce
Dessner, Richard Dubugnon, Henri Dutilleux, Jérôme Ducros, Danny Elfman,
Thierry Escaich, Joe Hisaishi, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Andrew
Norman, Krzysztof Penderecki, Max Richter, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann.
An
exclusive recording artist for Erato (Warner Music), Capuçon has a rich
discography that has earned numerous awards. Following “Intuition”, his 2020
release “Émotions” (featuring works by Debussy, Schubert, Elgar and others)
reached gold status in France, topping the charts for over 30 weeks and selling
more than 100,000 copies worldwide. His next album, Sensations (2022), became
the first classical recording to reach No. 1 in France’s all-genre charts,
followed by “Destination Paris” (2023). His most recent release (autumn 2024)
features Elgar and Walton concertos with Antonio Pappano and the London
Symphony Orchestra. Capuçon’s cello becomes the voice of the Earth in an
inspired album of world premieres, Gaïa – to be released in November 2025.
Featuring works by Max Richter, Bryce Dessner, Ludovico Einaudi, Gabriela
Montero, Joe Hisaishi, Nico Muhly, among others, the album will be released in
concert with San Francisco Symphony Orchestra in November 2025.
Earlier
recordings include Shostakovich with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky
Orchestra, Saint-Saëns with Lionel Bringuier and the Orchestre Philharmonique
de Radio France, the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley, Schubert’s
String Quintet with the Ébène Quartet, Intuition with the Orchestre de Chambre
de Paris and Douglas Boyd, and live recordings with Martha Argerich, Renaud
Capuçon, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Bernard Haitink. He has also
recorded Beethoven’s Piano Trios with Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley, sonatas
by Franck and Chopin with Yuja Wang, the solo album Souvenirs (Bach, Dutilleux,
Kodály), and a special “Best Of” release for his 40th birthday. His upcoming
album will feature 16 new works written for him by composers from diverse
cultures, inspired by nature and the earth.
Capuçon
also appears on live DVDs, including Haydn’s Concerto No. 1 with the Berlin
Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel, and Brahms’s Double Concerto with Lisa
Batiashvili, the Dresden Staatskapelle, and Christian Thielemann.
Parallelly,
Capuçon serves as an ambassador of “Orchestre à l’École”, an association that
introduces music into schools through three- to four-year learning cycles.
Today, 1.630 school orchestras across 100 French departments involve 44.000
children, and more than 184.000 pupils have already benefited from this vital
program.
From
2019 to 2025, he has hosted “Les carnets de Gautier Capuçon” on Radio Classique
every weekday from 5–6 pm. A household name in France, he frequently appears on
television and has been a juror on France 2’s “Prodiges” since its creation in
2014, a program that attracts more than three million viewers annually at
Christmas.
Born
in Chambéry, Capuçon began the cello at the age of four with Augustin Lefèbvre,
later studying in Paris with Annie Cochet-Zakine and Philippe Muller, and in
Vienna with Heinrich Schiff. Today, he collaborates with the world’s leading
orchestras and conductors, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Herbert Blomstedt,
Semyon Bychkov, Lionel Bringuier, Riccardo Chailly, Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo
Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Valery Gergiev, Paavo Järvi,
Philippe Jordan, Cristian Măcelaru, Klaus Mäkelä, Zubin Mehta, Yannick
Nézet-Séguin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Lorenzo Viotti, and Tugan Sokhiev.
SEASON 2025/26
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News
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09.12.2025KD SCHMID welcomes Gautier Capuçon
Calendar
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17.04.2026Davies Symphony HallSan FranciscoLearn more
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18.04.2026Davies Symphony HallSan FranciscoLearn more
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19.04.2026Davies Symphony HallSan FranciscoLearn more
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09.06.2026Daegu Concert HouseDaeguLearn more
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12.06.2026Seoul Arts CenterSeoulLearn more






