Born in Paris in 1988, Thomas Dunford discovered the lute at the age of nine thanks to his first teacher Claire Antonini. He finished his studies in 2006 at the Paris Conservatoire (CRR) where he obtained unanimously the first prize with honours in Charles-Edouard Fantin’s class.

From September 2003 to January 2005, Thomas performed for the first time as the lutenist in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the Comédie Française. Since then, Thomas gave recitals at the Carnegie Hall and the Frick Collection in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Washington Kennedy Center, the Vancouver Recital Society, the Cal performances at Berkeley, the Banff Center, the Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, the Festival de Saintes, Utrecht, Maguelone, Froville, the TAP in Poitiers, the WDR in Cologne, Radio France Montpellier, Saffron Hall. He has made several appearances in solo or in ensemble in the most prestigious European festivals, in particular Ambronay, Arques-la-Bataille, Bozar, La Chaise-Dieu, Nantes, Saint-Denis, Saintes, Utrecht and many others. He also performed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Austria, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Estonia, Czech Republic, Brasil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, the United-States, Israel, China, Japan and India.

Thomas Dunford is regularly called upon to play a variety of early plucked string instruments with the ensembles Les Arts Florissants, Akadêmia, Amarillis, Les Ambassadeurs, Arcangelo, La Cappella Mediterranea, Capriccio Stravagante, Le Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles,  La Chapelle Rhénane, Clematis, Collegium Vocale Gent, Le Concert Spirituel, Le Concert d’Astrée, A 2 Violes Esgales, The English Concert, the Ensemble Baroque de Limoges, La Fenice, Les Folies Françaises, the Irish Baroque Orchestra, Marsyas, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Les Musiciens du Paradis, Les Musiciens de Saint-Julien, Les Ombres, Pierre Robert, Pygmalion, La Sainte Folie Fantastique, Scherzi Musicali, La Serenissima, Les Siècles, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, La Symphonie du Marais…

Thomas Dunford is attracted to a wide variety of music, including jazz, and collaborates on chamber music projects with conductors and soloists such as Paul Agnew, Leonardo Garcia Alarcon, Nicola Benedetti, Keyvan Chemirani, William Christie, Jonathan Cohen, Christophe Coin, Iestyn Davies, Lea Desandre, Isabelle Faust, Bobby McFerrin, Philippe Herreweghe, Monica Huggett, Alexis Kossenko, François Lazarévitch, Anne-Sophie von Otter, Trevor Pinnock, Patricia Petibon, Sandrine Piau, Anna Prohaska, Hugo Reyne, Anna Reinhold, Jean Rondeau, Skip Sempé.

Thomas Dunford appeared at the Festival de Saint-Denis 2023 with his ensemble Jupiter for the Amazone concert with Léa Desandre.