Marc Coppey & François Dumont
Biography Marc Coppey & François Dumont
Marc Coppey
winner of the two highest prizes at the Bach competition Leipzig at the age of 18, first prize and special prize for the best interpretations of Bach, is considered to be one of the leading cellists of today. Sir Yehudi Menuhin discovered Marc’s talent at an early age and subsequently invited him to make his Moscow and Paris debuts performing together Tchaïkovsky Trio along with Victoria Postnikova, a collaboration documented on film by the acclaimed film director Bruno Monsaingeon. In 1989 Mstislav Rostropovitch invited Marc to the Evian Festival and from that moment on his solo career took off.
A frequent soloist with leading orchestras, Marc Coppey has collaborated with distinguished conductors such as Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, Alan Gilbert, Lionel Bringuier, Eliahu Inbal, Alain Altinoglu, Emmanuel Krivine, Yutaka Sado and Asher Fisch among others. Mr. Coppey has appeared on numerous occasions in Europe, North and South America and Asia and in some of the most prestigious concert halls such as the Wigmore Hall in London, the Schauspielhaus in Berlin, the Salle Pleyel, the Théâtre de la Ville, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Théâtre du Chatelet and the Cité de la Musique in Paris, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the National Concert Hall in Dublin, the Rudolfinum in Prague, the Liszt Conservatory Hall in Budapest, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory in Moscow, the Capella in Saint-Petersburg, the Casals Hall in Tokyo and the Metropolitan Museum in New York. He is a regular guest of the festivals of Radio-France-Montpellier, Strasbourg, Besançon, La Roque d’Anthéron, Monte-Carlo “Printemps des Arts”, Nantes “Folles Journées”, Stuttgart, Midem, Kuhmo, Korsholm and Prades.
An avid chamber music player, Marc Coppey has explored and performed the cello repertoire with such renowned artists as Maria-Joao Pires, Stephen Kovacevich, Nicholas Angelich, Aleksandar Madzar, Michel Beroff, Peter Laul, François-Frédéric Guy, Augustin Dumay, Victoria Mullova, Tedi Papavrami, Ilya Gringolts, Laurent Korcia, David Grimal, Gérard Caussé, Janos Starker, Marie-Pierre Langlamet, Michel Portal, Paul Meyer, Emmanuel Pahud and the Prazak and Talich Quartets. From 1995 to 2000 he was a member of the Ysaÿe Quartet, performing at the most prestigious international concert venues.
Marc Coppey’s choice of repertoire is eclectic and innovative. He frequently plays the complete Bach Suites and other well-known and loved concert repertoire, and also brings to the public’s attention works that are rarely heard. Performing and promoting contemporary music is very important to Marc Coppey and composers such as Christian Durieux, Fénelon, Jarrell, Krawczyk, Lenot, Marc Monnet, Pauset, Reverdy Tanguy, Auerbach and Bruno Mantovani have all dedicated works to him. He gave the world premieres of Lenot’s Cello Concerto, Tanguy’s 1st Cello Concerto as well as Marc Monnet’s Cello Concerto and the French and Spanish premiere of Elliott Carter’s Cello Concerto.
Marc Coppey’s recordings have received critical acclaim worldwide. They include works by Beethoven, Debussy, Emmanuel Fauré, Grieg and Strauss, produced by the labels Auvidis, Decca, Harmonia Mundi and K617. Among his first recordings are the concertante works by Théodore Dubois on the Mirare label. His release of the complete Bach Suites (awarded Télérama’s ffff) and a CD dedicated to Dohnanyi (featured in the “10 de Répertoire”), were both recorded for the Aeon/Harmonia Mundi label. Together with the Prazak Quartet, Marc Coppey recorded the Schubert Quintet for the Praga label. His discography also includes one of the great Russian cello sonatas, accompanied by pianist Peter Laul (on the Aeon label), a performance of Martin Matalon’s concerto (on Accord/ Universal), a CD of the Brahms Sonatas with pianist Peter Laul. His 2008 recording of the Dutilleux Cello Concerto and the Caplet Concertos with the Liège Orchestra under Pascal Rophé’s direction received a Diapason d’Or and a “Choc” from the Magazine Le Monde de la Musique. In November 2009, Marc Coppey was invited to play Bach in Paris on the Place de la Concorde marking the 20th anniversary since the Fall of the Wall in Berlin.
In addition to his solo concert career and his chamber music activities, Marc Coppey is a professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris and gives master-classes all over the world. Marc Coppey is the artistic director of the Colmar Chamber Music Festival as well as the Zagreb Soloists. He performs on a rare cello by Matteo Goffriller (Venice 1711) and resides in Paris.
Marc Coppey was born in Strasbourg, France. He studied cello at the conservatory of his home town and continued at the National Conservatory of Paris and at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana (USA).
François Dumont
international career has been launched by his success in major international piano competitions winning prizes in the Chopin Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the Clara Haskil Competition, the Montecarlo Piano Masters. He has been nominated for the Victoires de la musique, a major French classical music event. He has received the Prix de la Révélation from the Syndicate of Music Critics in France.
François Dumont has been chosen by Leonard Slatkin to play and record both Ravel concerti with the Orchestre National de Lyon. The CD will be issued for Naxos during the 2019 season.
He appears as a soloist with orchestras such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, the Montecarlo Philharmonic, the Warsaw National Philharmonic, the Orchestre national de Lorraine, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre National d’Ile-de-France, the Orquesta Nacional de Colombia, the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, the Tokyo Symphony with conductors such as Jesùs Lopez-Cobos, Antoni Wit, Arie van Beek, Philippe Bender, Rani Calderon, David Reiland, Stefan Sanderling, Alexander Sladkovsky.
François Dumont was fourteen years old when he entered the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Bruno Rigutto’s class. He later studied at the prestigious Lieven Piano Foundation and the Lake Como International Piano Academy with artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, Murray Perahia, William Grant Naboré, Menahem Pressler, Andreas Staier and Fou Ts’ong.
François Dumont is invited to perform recitals in major venues such as the Festival International de la Roque d’Anthéron, the Piano aux Jacobins Festival à Toulouse, Chopin Festival in Nohant, Radio-France Montpellier Festival, Chopin à Paris Bagatelle Festival, Chopin and his Europe Festival in Warsaw, Nuits du Suquet in Cannes, Journées Ravel in Montfort l’Amaury, Ljubljana Festival, Kennedy Center in Washington. He regularly tours Japan, South Korea and China.
His chambers music partners are Tabea Zimmerman, Augustin Dumay, Henri Demarquette , Xavier Philipps, the Prazak, Sine Nomine, Talich, Zemlinsky, Voce and Debussy Quartets. With Virginie Constant and Philippe Aïche, his is part of the Trio Élégiaque, which whom he recorded the complete Beethoven and Schubert Trios.
His first solo recordings, the Complete Mozart Sonatas (Anima Records) and a Chopin album (Artalinna) both received the “Maestro” award of the “Pianiste” magazine. Other solo recordings include a Wagner/Liszt programme (Piano Classics) as well as a double CD live that includes all his performances at the Chopin Competition, published by the National Chopin Institute in Warsaw. His recording of the complete piano music of Maurice Ravel (Piano Classics) has received both critic (FFF Telerama, 5 Diapason) and public acclaim. Two B.A.C.H. project have been released by Artalinna, of which the famous critic Jacques Drillon wrote : « coherence, dignity, richness of affects. One thinks of Edwin Fisher ». His recent recording of Mozart Concerti K.271 and K.466 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne have been praised for their “clarity of elocution”, their “ideal sense of equilibrium” and “delightful classicism”.
His collaboration with the OSB continues with Mozart Concerti K.453 and K.488 which he has recorded live, conducting from the keyboard. The project was taken to Salle Gaveau, Paris, where it met public and critic acclaim. His 2018 allbum featuring the complete Chopin Nocturnes was praised by the BBC magazine for his « singing tone » and the International Piano Magazine considers that it is « a stunning new version that sets him apart », while the American magazine Fanfare writes : «There are few recent recordings to compare with this one. »
During the 2018-19 season, he is invited to perform Franck and Ravel concertos with Les Siècles orchestra conducted by François-Xavier Roth. Concerts will take him to Taïwan, Luxembourg, Ireland, Belgium and Russia. He will give a concert tour with Orchestre des Pays de Savoie with Mozart’s « Jeunehomme » concerto.
His debut in the Paris Philharmonie will take place in February 2019 with Schumann piano concerto.
