Renaud Capuçon studied at the Paris Conservatoire from the age of fourteen. After five years of prize-winning studies, he moved to Berlin to study with Thomas Brandis and Isaac Stern. In 1997, Claudio Abbado chose him as concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, enabling him to perfect his musical education alongside the Maestro, as well as with conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa and Franz Welser-Möst.

Since then, Renaud Capuçon has been one of the most sought-after soloists, playing with the most prestigious orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Chambre d’Europe, the Filarmonica della Scala, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris. He enjoys a privileged relationship with a great many conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Semyon Bychkov, Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Christoph Eschenbach, Daniel Harding, Paavo Järvi, and others.

As a passionate chamber musician, he performs regularly with partners such as Martha Argerich, the late Nicholas Angelich, Kit Armstrong, Khatia Buniatishvili, Frank Braley, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Maria João Pires, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yuri Bashmet, Myung-Whun Chung, Yo-Yo Ma, Mischa Maisky, Michael Pletnev and his brother Gautier Capuçon, at the most famous festivals: Aix-en-Provence, La Roque d’Anthéron, Hollywood Bowl, Tanglewood, Gstaad, Lucerne, Verbier, Salzburg, Rheingau and the Enescu Festival in Bucharest. Renaud Capuçon has also represented France at prestigious international events: he played under the Arc de Triomphe with Yo-Yo Ma for the commemoration of Armistice Day in the presence of over 80 heads of state, and played at the G7 summit in Biarritz.

Renaud Capuçon has been artistic director of the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne since 2021. Released in September 2021, the first CD recorded with the Vaudois ensemble features works by Estonian composer Arvo Pärt. A second CD, devoted to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and two concertos by the Chevalier de Saint-George, will be released in September 2022. Renaud Capuçon has also been artistic director of the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad since 2016, as well as of the Festival de Pâques d’Aix-en-Provence, which he founded in 2013.

Renaud Capuçon boasts an extensive discography. Recent releases for Erato/Warner include a recording of Elgar’s violin concerto and sonata with the London Symphony Orchestra and Simon Rattle, a recording of works by Saint-Saëns with Daniel Harding, Bertrand Chamayou and Edgar Moreau, and ‘Un violon à Paris’, a disc recorded with Guillaume Bellom, which presents a wide range of shorter works arranged for violin and piano. His album ‘Au cinéma’, devoted to film music, was enthusiastically received by the critics.

For Deutsche Grammophon, Renaud Capuçon is releasing a Beethoven/Schumann/Franck recital, recorded with Martha Argerich at the Festival de Pâques d’Aix-en-Provence (2022), and the complete Mozart sonatas for piano and violin with Kit Armstrong (2023).

Latest release (Deutsche Grammophon, October 2023): the complete Mozart violin concertos with the Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne.

He founded the production company Beau Soir Production with the aim of encouraging emerging classical music talent on the local and international scene.

His many appearances at the festival de Saint-Denis include the 2019 ‘Cinema’ concert of film music, conducted by Pierre Bleuse with the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, and the Brahms evening in 2016 with Karine Deshayes and Nicholas Angelich.