Born: 1968, Lausanne, Switzerland

“Once music is composed, it doesn’t belong to me anymore. It’s really like a child. It has to have its own life – performers have to make it alive every time in a different way, give it a different personality – and, as a good father, you have to accept it. It’s not always easy.”

After starting music at the age of 20, Richard Dubugnon was accepted to the Paris Conservatory in 1992, where he graduated with prizes in Double Bass, Counterpoint, and Fugue. He also studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London, becoming a fellow there in 1998. His music, characterized as “driven by a playful, modern sensibility,” has been commissioned and performed by such artists as Janine Jansen, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Julian Rachlin, and Gautier Capuçon, earning awards such as the Pierre Cardin Prize and the Grand Prix Lycéen.

Further listening:

Hypnos (2011)
Janine Jansen, solo violin
(Decca, 2011)

Three Dances, Op. 20 (1997)
Rustem Kudoyarov, solo piano
(Classical Records, 2005)

Piano Quartet (1998)
Nicholas Daniel, Richard Dubugnon
Royal Academy Wind Soloists
(Naxos, 2009)