Renaud Capuçon Receives Officer’s Medal in the French National Order of Merit

The French violinist has now been promoted to the National Order of Merit’s second rank 

Founded in 1963, France’s National Order of Merit honors individuals across all professional industries. 

In 2011, Capuçon received the Knight of the French National Order of Merit, and in 2016, he was made a Knight of the French Legion of Honor. 

He was most recently awarded the Officer of the National Order of Merit by French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace. 

Capuçon began his studies at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at age 14. He later moved to Berlin to study with Thomas Brandis and Isaac Stern and was awarded the Prize of the Berlin Academy of Arts. 

In 1997, he was invited by Claudio Abbado to serve as concertmaster of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, where he worked with conductors including Boulez, Ozawa, and Welser-Möst.

Since 2016, he has been the artistic director of the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad festival, and of France’s Easter Festival in Aix-en-Provence, which he founded in 2013 with the aim of programming more emerging musicians.

He has played solo at the La Roque d'Anthéron, Hollywood Bowl, Tanglewood, Gstaad, Lucerne, Verbier, Salzburg, Rheingau, and Bucharest Enescu Festivals, and performed chamber music with the likes of Martha Argerich, Yefim Bronfman, Hélene Grimaud, Yo-Yo Ma, and Mischa Maisky. Capuçon’s discography includes nearly 30 CDs.

In 2017, he created the Lausanne Soloists ensemble, which comprises students from the Haute Ecole de Musique de Lausanne, where he has been teaching violin since 2014.

In 2020, UNESCO named him “Artist for Peace;” in 2021, the French Minister of Culture presented him with the Officer's Medal in the Order of Arts and Letters.

Capuçon plays the 1737 “Panette” Guarneri del Gesù, which belonged to Isaac Stern.