Renaud Capuçon & Kit Armstrong
Biography Renaud Capuçon & Kit Armstrong
Renaud Capuçon
Born in Chambéry in 1976, Renaud Capuçon studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris with Gérard Poulet and Veda Reynolds. He was awarded first prize for chamber music in 1992 and first prize for violin with a special distinction from the jury in 1993. In 1995 he won the Prize of the Berlin Academy of Arts. Then he studied with Thomas Brandis in Berlin, and later with Isaac Stern. Invited by Claudio Abbado in 1997, he continued his musical experiences as konzertmeister of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester during three summers with Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Daniel Barenboim, Franz Welser-Moest and of course Claudio Abbado. In 2000 he was nominated “Rising Star” and “New talent of the Year” (French Victoires de la Musique), in 2005 “Soliste instrumental de l’année”, also by the French Victoires de la Musique, and in 2006 “Prix Georges Enesco” (Sacem).
He is playing with: Berlin Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle, Munich Bayerische Rundfunk, DSO Berlin, Bamberger Symphoniker, Hessischer Rundfunk, NDR Hamburg and WDR Köln orchestras, Boston Symphony, Los Angeles Phiharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Washington National Symphony Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Simon Bolivar Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Lyon, Monte-Carlo, and Toulouse Orchestras, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Moskow Radio Tchaikovsky Orchestra, Danish Royal Orchestra, Swedish Radio Orchestra, London Symphony, Academy of St-Martin-in-the-Fields, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, City of Birmingham Symphony, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Firenze Maggio Musicale Orchestra, Milano Scala Philharmonic, Rome Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Tokyo Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lausanne and Zurich Chamber Orchestras, under Marc Albrecht, Christian Arming, Lionel Bringuier, Semyon Bychkov, Myung-Whun Chung, Jesus Lopez Cobos, Thomas Dausgaard, Christoph von Dohnanyi Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Ivan Fischer, Bernard Haitink, Daniel Harding, Gunther Herbig, Kristjan, Paavo and Neeme Järvi, Philippe Jordan, Emmanuel Krivine, Kurt Masur, Ludovic Morlot, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nezet-Seguin, David Robertson, Dennis Russel-Davis, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Leonard Slatkin, Tugan Sokhiev, Robert Ticciati… In 2011 he toured USA with the China Philharmonic and Long Yu, played in China with the Guangzhou and Shanghai Symphonies and Claus Peter Flor and gave integrals of Beethoven Sonatas with F. Braley in Europe, Singapore and Hong-Kong.
Renaud Capuçon plays chamber music with Martha Argerich, Hélène Grimaud, Nicholas Angelich, Frank Braley, Yefim Bronfman, Myung-Whun Chung, Yuri Bashmet, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Mischa Maisky, Truls Mork, Maria Joao Pires, Mikhail Pletnev, Antoine Tamestit, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Maxim Vengerov. He is invited by prestigious festivals: London Mostly Mozart, Edinburgh, Berlin, Ludwigsburg, Rheingau, Lucerne, Montreux, Lockenhaus, Verbier, Gstaad, Salzburg, Schwarzenberg, Jerusalem, Stavanger, Canarias, San Sebastian, Aix-en-Provence, Roque d’Anthéron, Menton, Saint-Denis, Strasbourg, Hollywood Bowl, Tanglewood…
Discography for EMI Classics: Mendelssohn and Haydn trios and the Triple Concerto by Beethoven with Martha Argerich, Schubert recital, Berlioz/Saint-Saëns/Milhaud/Ravel with Daniel Harding and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Ravel chamber music with Gautier Capuçon and Frank Braley, duos with his brother; Dutilleux Concerto with the Radio France Philharmonic under Myung-Whun Chung (« Grand Prix Académie Charles Cros », « Choc de la Musique », « Diapason d’Or », « Fonoforum/Sterne des Monates »), Saint-Saëns chamber music, Brahms Trios with Gautier Capuçon and Nicholas Angelich (Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik), Schubert Trout, Mendelssohn/Schumann concertos with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Daniel Harding, Brahms Sonatas with Nicholas Angelich (Gramophone/Editor’s Choice-Scherzo/Excepcional-Diapason d’Or-Choc/Monde de la Musique), Brahms Double Concerto with Gautier Capuçon and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester (Gramophone/Editor’s Choice) and Brahms Quartets with Gautier, Gérard Caussé and Nicholas Angelich, Mozart Concertos and Sinfonia Concertante with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra / Louis Langrée and Antoine Tamestit, Beethoven/Korngold concertos with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Yannick Nezet-Seguin, Beethoven Sonatas for violin/piano with Frank Braley, Fauré chamber music with N. Angelich, G. Capuçon, M. Dalberto, G. Caussé and Ebène Quartet.
Renaud Capuçon plays the Guarneri del Gesù “Panette” (1737) that belonged to Isaac Stern, bought for him by the Banca Svizzera Italiana (BSI). In June 2011 he is appointed “Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite” by the French Government.
Kit Armstrong
Ever since Kit Armstrong entered the international music stage twenty years ago, his activities have exerted an enduring fascination upon music lovers. Today he maintains an active career as pianist, composer, and organist. He performs as a soloist in major international venues such as the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Musikverein, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Hamburg Elbphilharmonie, and Suntory Hall Tokyo, and appears with some of the world’s finest orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle, NHK Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
A passionate chamber musician, Armstrong has developed close artistic partnerships with other leading instrumental and vocal artists. The complete Mozart sonatas for piano and violin with Renaud Capuçon have featured at the Salzburg Mozartwoche Festival and Berlin’s Boulez Hall. Armstrong has given song recitals with Benjamin Appl, Julian Prégardien, and others. Recent European tours with the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, one of the world’s leading early music ensembles, reflect long-standing collaborations. Armstrong has appeared as an organ recitalist at the Berlin Philharmonie, Vienna Konzerthaus, Philharmonie de Luxembourg, Weiwuying in Kaohsiung, as well as in cathedrals throughout Europe.
At the age of 5, Armstrong came to classical music through composition, and has developed a broad oeuvre of solo, vocal, chamber, and symphonic works. Edition Peters publishes Armstrong’s compositions, which have been commissioned by the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Schubertiade, Bachwoche Ansbach, and Klavierfestival Ruhr among others.
Armstrong has held artist-in-residence appointments offering a wide spectrum of musical formats, combining activities as composer, pianist, conductor, and organist, at institutions including the Palais des Beaux Arts in Brussels, the Mozartfest Würzburg, the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the Musikkollegium Winterthur, and coming up in 2023, the Museumsgesellschaft Frankfurt.
Armstrong’s solo piano albums include Bach, Ligeti, Armstrong and Liszt: Symphonic Scenes, both released by Sony Classical, as well as various live recitals on DVD, including Bach’s Goldberg Variations and its Predecessors at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam (Unitel, 2017) and Wagner - Liszt - Mozart at the Bayreuth Margravial Opera House (C-Major, 2019). In 2021 Deutsche Grammophon released a double CD dedicated to a panorama of works by William Byrd and John Bull: The Visionaries of Piano Music.
Born in 1992 in Los Angeles, Armstrong started studying composition at Chapman University and physics at California State University, later chemistry and mathematics at the University of Pennsylvania and mathematics at Imperial College London. He earned a bachelor’s degree in music at the Royal Academy of Music in London and a master’s degree in pure mathematics at the University of Paris VI. Alfred Brendel has guided Armstrong as teacher and mentor since 2005. Their relationship was captured in the film Set the Piano Stool on Fire by Mark Kidel.
In 2012, Armstrong purchased the Church of Sainte-Thérèse in Hirson, France as a hall for concerts and exhibitions. This cultural centre that he created is home to interdisciplinary projects reaching a regional as well as cosmopolitan public, and has been the subject of profiles in the national and international press.
