Violinist AUGUSTIN DUMAY has established himself as a major talent, a sought-after soloist and chamber musician with an international reputation. Dumay began studying the violin at an early age after his parents took him to hear a performance by Nathan Milstein, who later became his teacher. Dumay entered the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten, remaining there for two years before continuing his musical education with private teachers. At 14, he gave a recital at the Montreux Festival with Henryk Szeryng and Joseph Szigeti in the audience; just a week later, Szeryng was asked to substitute for another violinist on a tour of South America, and unable to go himself, he recommended the young Dumay. Upon his return from the tour, Dumay was accepted as a student of Nathan Milstein, who predicted that he would become one of the great violinists by the end of the century. Later, Dumay also studied with Arthur Grumiaux for five years in Brussels.

International recognition came in 1979, when Herbert von Karajan made Dumay his guest artist for a special celebratory concert in Paris. Immediately afterwards, Dumay was invited to perform Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic and Colin Davis, a performance which brought great public and critical acclaim.

Since then, Augustin Dumay has enjoyed an increasingly busy international career, and is regularly invited to play with the leading European orchestras and conductors. He has performed regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic, l’Orchestre National de France, l’Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Japan Philharmonic, the London Symphony Orchestra, the English Chamber Orchestra, and some of the most prestigious conductors of our time, including Seiji Ozawa, Charles Dutoit, Kurt Sanderling, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, and Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos.

He has performed at many prestigious festivals, such as Montreux, Bath, Berlin, Lucerne, Monaco, Aix-en-Provence, Leipzig, Montpellier, Prades, and Ravinia. Dumay gives recitals in Europe’s most prestigious concert halls, including the Concertgebouw, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels, the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Wigmore Hall, La Scala, the Philharmonie in Berlin, and the Herkulessaal in Munich. Engagements in the 1998/99 and 1999/2000 seasons include extensive tours to the Far East, concerts with the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, l’Orchestre National de Lyon, l’Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo, the Stockholm Philharmonic, the Philharmonia, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Salzburg Camerata Academica (at the Mozartwoche Salzburg), the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

Besides the duo he forms with Maria João Pires, Augustin Dumay also plays in trio with Pires and Jian Wang. He now records exclusively for Deutsche Grammophon. Future recording projects include concerti by Mozart (playing/ directing with the Camerata Academica Salzburg), Bloch, Weill, and various French composers, a solo disc featuring works by Bach, Ysaÿe, and Rózsa, as well as duo and trio recordings with Pires and Wang. Earlier recordings can be found on EMI Classics. Dumay has won some of the most prestigious record awards, such as the Grand Prix du Disque and the Gramophone Award.

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