Gautier Capuçon

cello

Gautier Capuçon is one of the foremost cello ambassadors of the 21st century; he is celebrated for the depth of his interpretations and his dazzling virtuosity. Alongside performing, he created the Fondation Gautier Capuçon (FGC), dedicated to supporting outstanding young musicians, which today counts 45 laureates from around the world.

Capuçon works with the most renowned orchestras and conductors across the globe, recently performing with the Berliner Philharmoniker, in Berlin and on tour, opening with the Europakonzert from Esterházy Palace. He also appeared with the Vienna Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich with Paavo Järvi, and the hr-Sinfonieorchester with Alain Altinoglu at both the Dvořák Prague Festival’s opening concert and the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest, as only a few examples.

Highlights of the 2026/27 season include a return to the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Altinoglu followed by appearances with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Mark Elder, Filarmonica della Scala and Riccardo Chailly, WDR-Sinfonieorchester and Marie Jacquot, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and Simone Young, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki, among many others.

This season sees Capuçon embark on major international tours with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Jaap van Zweden, the Gewandhausorchester and Andris Nelsons, the Netherlands Philharmonic and Lorenzo Viotti, and the Orchestre de Paris with Andrés Orozco-Estrada. He also tours Europe throughout the season with Capucelli, a seven-cello ensemble he founded with alumni of his Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle and alumni of the FGC in 2015.

A highly sought-after chamber musician, he tours North America with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Lisa Batiashvili, Europe with Frank Braley in an all-Beethoven program, and performs Beethoven piano trios with Evgeny Kissin and Maxim Vengerov at Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and Carnegie Hall.

Capuçon is an exclusive recording artist for Erato (Warner Music) whose extensive discography has earned numerous awards. An autumn 2024 release featured the Elgar and Walton concertos with Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra. In November 2025 his cello became the voice of the Earth, through an album of world premieres titled Gaïa and supported by the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.

A committed supporter of education, alongside the Fondation Gautier Capuçon he serves as an ambassador of Orchestre à l’École, and in 2020 he launched Un été en France, a musical journey that brought free live performances to families across the country.

Born in Chambéry, Capuçon began the cello at the age of 4 with Augustin Lefèbvre, later studying in Paris with Annie Cochet-Zakine and Philippe Muller and in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff.