Gautier Capuçon is a true ambassador of today's cello. He performs every season with the world's most renowned conductors and instrumentalists. In January 2022, he extended his commitment to education and transmission to young artists by creating his own Foundation, to help young musicians start their careers. The Gautier Capuçon Foundation now has 36 laureates. Gautier Capuçon is widely recognized for his expressive musicality, his virtuosity and the deep sound of his Matteo Goffriller cello "L'Ambassadeur" from 1701.
In the summer of 2020, during the pandemic, Gautier Capuçon launched his Un été en France tour, a musical journey that allowed families from all over the country to attend live concerts. He repeated the experience in 2021, this time inviting young instrumentalists and dancers to join him on stage. To date, the initiative has attracted more than 145,000 spectators, presented 80 concerts in 66 cities and towns, and showcased 69 emerging artists alongside it. Five documentaries have already been dedicated to the tour, and a new one was broadcast between Christmas and New Year 2025.
Highlights of past seasons with orchestras include concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Andris Nelson, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Stéphane Denève, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Christoph Koncz, as well as touring with the Filarmonica della Scala and Ricardo Chailly, Hr-SinfonieOrchester Frankfurt and Alain Altinoglu, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Lahav Shani.
He has recently toured Europe and Carnegie Hall with Evgeny Kissin, as well as with Rudolf Buchbinder, Renaud Capuçon and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. As a chamber musician, he is invited every year to perform with partners such as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Lisa Batiashvili, Frank Braley, Renaud Capuçon, Jérôme Ducros, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yuja Wang or the Artemis, Ébène, Hagen or Modigliani Quartets.
Gautier Capuçon also created the Capucelli ensemble, alongside six cellists who won his Class of Excellence, with whom he has performed in Europe and Taiwan, China.
The 2025/26 season will see Gautier Capuçon on tour with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko, in residence with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, in concert with the Hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt for the opening of the Dvořák Festival Prague and the George Enescu Festival Bucharest. Gautier Capuçon will also perform with the Orchestre de Paris and Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the San Francisco Symphony and Simone Young, the Tonhalle Zürich and Paavo Järvi.
Over the course of his career, Gautier Capuçon has developed many solid musical friendships. He is invited each season by the greatest orchestras, including the Berlin, Vienna, Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, as well as the Chicago, San Francisco and London Symphony Orchestras. He has worked with conductors such as Lionel Bringuier, Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Tugan Sokhiev.
The teStrong chamber music performances include concerts with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Lisa Batiashvili, and a recital tour with Nikolai Lugansky.
He also collaborates with many contemporary composers, such as Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Bryce Dessner, Richard Dubugnon, Henri Dutilleux, Jérôme Ducros, Danny Elfman, Thierry Escaich, Joe Hisaishi, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Andrew Norman, Krzysztof Penderecki, Max Richter, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann.
An exclusive artist at Erato (Warner Music), Capuçon has a rich discography that has earned him numerous awards. After Intuition, his album Emotions (2020), which includes works by Debussy, Schubert, Elgar and other composers, was crowned gold in France, topping the sales charts for more than 30 weeks and selling more than 100,000 copies worldwide. His next album, Sensations (2022), became the first classical recording to reach number one on the charts of all genres in France, followed by Destination Paris (2023). His latest CD (Fall 2024) features the Elgar and Walton concertos with Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra. Gautier Capuçon's cello becomes the voice of the Earth in an album inspired by world premieres, Gaïa, released in November 2025, including works by Max Richter, Bryce Dessner, Ludovico Einaudi, Gabriela Montero, Joe Hisaishi, Nico Muhly, among others. The album was presented in concert with the San Francisco Symphony in November 2025.
His previous recordings include Shostakovich concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, Saint-Saëns with Lionel Bringuier and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the complete Beethoven sonatas with Frank Braley, the Schubert Quintet with the Ébène Quartet, Intuition with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Douglas Boyd, as well as live recordings with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Bernard Haitink. He has also recorded Beethoven's piano trios with Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley, the Franck and Chopin sonatas with Yuja Wang, a solo album "Souvenirs" (Bach, Dutilleux, Kodály), as well as a "Best-of" published especially for his 40th birthday. His next release will feature 16 works written for him by composers from different cultures, inspired by nature and the Earth.
Gautier Capuçon also appears on numerous live DVDs, including Haydn's Concerto No. 1 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel, Brahms' Double Concerto with Lisa Batiashvili, the Dresden Staatskapelle and Christian Thielemann.
At the same time, he is an ambassador for the association Orchestre à l'École, which works for the introduction of music in schools through three- to four-year apprenticeship cycles. Today, 1,630 school orchestras in 100 departments, involving 44,000 children. More than 184,000 students have already benefited from this program.
In January 2021, Gautier Capuçon was promoted to the rank of Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honor.
From 2019 to 2025, he hosted Les carnets de Gautier Capuçon on Radio Classique every day of the week from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Famous in France, he frequently appears on television and has been part of the jury of the show Prodiges on France 2 since its creation in 2014, a show that attracts more than three million viewers each year at Christmas.
Born in 1981 in Chambéry, Gautier Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five with Augustin Lefèbvre and studied in Paris with Annie Cochet-Zakine, Philippe Muller, then in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff. He received several first prizes in international competitions, including the First Grand Prize at the André Navarra International Competition in Toulouse.
In the summer of 2020, during the pandemic, Gautier Capuçon launched his Un été en France tour, a musical journey that allowed families from all over the country to attend live concerts. He repeated the experience in 2021, this time inviting young instrumentalists and dancers to join him on stage. To date, the initiative has attracted more than 145,000 spectators, presented 80 concerts in 66 cities and towns, and showcased 69 emerging artists alongside it. Five documentaries have already been dedicated to the tour, and a new one was broadcast between Christmas and New Year 2025.
Highlights of past seasons with orchestras include concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Andris Nelson, the Philadelphia Orchestra and Stéphane Denève, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Christoph Koncz, as well as touring with the Filarmonica della Scala and Ricardo Chailly, Hr-SinfonieOrchester Frankfurt and Alain Altinoglu, the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Lahav Shani.
He has recently toured Europe and Carnegie Hall with Evgeny Kissin, as well as with Rudolf Buchbinder, Renaud Capuçon and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. As a chamber musician, he is invited every year to perform with partners such as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Lisa Batiashvili, Frank Braley, Renaud Capuçon, Jérôme Ducros, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Yuja Wang or the Artemis, Ébène, Hagen or Modigliani Quartets.
Gautier Capuçon also created the Capucelli ensemble, alongside six cellists who won his Class of Excellence, with whom he has performed in Europe and Taiwan, China.
The 2025/26 season will see Gautier Capuçon on tour with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Kirill Petrenko, in residence with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, in concert with the Hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt for the opening of the Dvořák Festival Prague and the George Enescu Festival Bucharest. Gautier Capuçon will also perform with the Orchestre de Paris and Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the San Francisco Symphony and Simone Young, the Tonhalle Zürich and Paavo Järvi.
Over the course of his career, Gautier Capuçon has developed many solid musical friendships. He is invited each season by the greatest orchestras, including the Berlin, Vienna, Los Angeles and New York Philharmonics, as well as the Chicago, San Francisco and London Symphony Orchestras. He has worked with conductors such as Lionel Bringuier, Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Tugan Sokhiev.
The teStrong chamber music performances include concerts with Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Lisa Batiashvili, and a recital tour with Nikolai Lugansky.
He also collaborates with many contemporary composers, such as Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Bryce Dessner, Richard Dubugnon, Henri Dutilleux, Jérôme Ducros, Danny Elfman, Thierry Escaich, Joe Hisaishi, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Andrew Norman, Krzysztof Penderecki, Max Richter, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann.
An exclusive artist at Erato (Warner Music), Capuçon has a rich discography that has earned him numerous awards. After Intuition, his album Emotions (2020), which includes works by Debussy, Schubert, Elgar and other composers, was crowned gold in France, topping the sales charts for more than 30 weeks and selling more than 100,000 copies worldwide. His next album, Sensations (2022), became the first classical recording to reach number one on the charts of all genres in France, followed by Destination Paris (2023). His latest CD (Fall 2024) features the Elgar and Walton concertos with Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra. Gautier Capuçon's cello becomes the voice of the Earth in an album inspired by world premieres, Gaïa, released in November 2025, including works by Max Richter, Bryce Dessner, Ludovico Einaudi, Gabriela Montero, Joe Hisaishi, Nico Muhly, among others. The album was presented in concert with the San Francisco Symphony in November 2025.
His previous recordings include Shostakovich concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, Saint-Saëns with Lionel Bringuier and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the complete Beethoven sonatas with Frank Braley, the Schubert Quintet with the Ébène Quartet, Intuition with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and Douglas Boyd, as well as live recordings with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Bernard Haitink. He has also recorded Beethoven's piano trios with Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley, the Franck and Chopin sonatas with Yuja Wang, a solo album "Souvenirs" (Bach, Dutilleux, Kodály), as well as a "Best-of" published especially for his 40th birthday. His next release will feature 16 works written for him by composers from different cultures, inspired by nature and the Earth.
Gautier Capuçon also appears on numerous live DVDs, including Haydn's Concerto No. 1 with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Gustavo Dudamel, Brahms' Double Concerto with Lisa Batiashvili, the Dresden Staatskapelle and Christian Thielemann.
At the same time, he is an ambassador for the association Orchestre à l'École, which works for the introduction of music in schools through three- to four-year apprenticeship cycles. Today, 1,630 school orchestras in 100 departments, involving 44,000 children. More than 184,000 students have already benefited from this program.
In January 2021, Gautier Capuçon was promoted to the rank of Knight in the National Order of the Legion of Honor.
From 2019 to 2025, he hosted Les carnets de Gautier Capuçon on Radio Classique every day of the week from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Famous in France, he frequently appears on television and has been part of the jury of the show Prodiges on France 2 since its creation in 2014, a show that attracts more than three million viewers each year at Christmas.
Born in 1981 in Chambéry, Gautier Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five with Augustin Lefèbvre and studied in Paris with Annie Cochet-Zakine, Philippe Muller, then in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff. He received several first prizes in international competitions, including the First Grand Prize at the André Navarra International Competition in Toulouse.
