François Dumont - NOSPR

Born in Lyon, French pianist François Dumont’s international career was launched by his prize-winning successes at the Chopin, Queen Elisabeth, Clara Haskil, and Monte-Carlo Piano Masters competitions. At the age of fourteen, he entered the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique and studied with Bruno Rigutto. He subsequently studied at the prestigious International Piano Academy Lake Como with artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, William Grant Naboré, Murray Perahia, Menahem Pressler, and Andreas Staier. He studied as a Theo Lieven Scholar in the Lugano Conservatory.
Leonard Slatkin chose Mr. Dumont as the soloist to record a CD of the two Ravel's Piano Concerti with the Orchestre National de Lyon, which has be released on the Naxos label with great critic acclaim.
Mr. Dumont has appeared as soloist with orchestras around the world such as the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Orchestre National d'Île-de-France, Orchestre National de Lyon, Orchestre National de Lille, Orchestre National de Lorraine, Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia, and the Wuhan Philharmonic Orchestra with conductors such as Christoph Altstaedt, Arie van Beek, Philippe Bender, Grant Llewellyn, Jesús López Cobos, David Reiland, François-Xavier Roth, Stefan Sanderling, Alexander Sladkovsky, Leonard Slatkin, Ransom Wilson, and Antoni Wit. He also regularly appears at festivals such as Festival International de Piano de la Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins, Nohant Festival Chopin, Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier, Festival Chopin à Paris, Chopin and his Europe, Nuits Musicales du Suquet, Journées Ravel à Montfort l’Amaury, Round Top Festival Institute, and Ljubljana Festival.
François Dumont recently toured Italy with Les Siècles conducted by François-Xavier Roth, performing both the Franck's and Ravel's concertos. He made his debut at the Paris Philharmonie in performing Schumann's Piano Concerto with the Orchestre Pasdeloup and Christoph Altstaedt, conducting. He also toured cities in France with the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie performing Mozart's Piano Concerto, K. 271. Other concerts during the season took him to Taiwan, Luxembourg, Ireland, Belgium and Russia.
François Dumont’s discography includes the complete Mozart's Sonatas (for Anima Records) and a Chopin album (for Artalinna) both of which received the Maestro award from the French magazine Pianiste. Other solo recordings include a Wagner/Liszt program (Piano Classics) as well as a live double CD that includes all his performances from the Chopin Competition, released by the Fryderyk Chopin Institute. His recording of the complete piano music of Maurice Ravel (Piano Classics) has received critical acclaim. Two volumes of keyboard works by J.S. Bach called Looking for B.A.C.H on the Artalinna label were released in 2015 and 2017, respectively of which the French critic Jacques Drillon wrote “coherence, dignity, richness of affects. One thinks of Edwin Fisher”. His recording of Mozart's Concerti K. 271 and K. 466 with the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne have been praised for their “clarity of elocution”, their “ideal sense of equilibrium” and “delightful classicism”. His collaboration with the Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne continued with live recordings of Mozart's Concerti K. 453 and K. 488 which he conducted from the keyboard. His latest album, the complete Chopin Nocturnes, was praised by the BBC Music Magazine for his “singing tone” and the International Piano Magazine considers it “a stunning new version that sets him apart”, while the American magazine Fanfare wrote “There are few recent recordings to compare with this one”.
Chamber music is an important part of Mr. Dumont’s musical life and performances. He frequently collaborates with musical partners such as Sayaka Shoji, Tabea Zimmermann, Augustin Dumay, Henri Demarquette, Xavier Philipps, Pražák Quartet, Quatuor Sine Nomine, Talich Quartet and Zemlinsky Quartet. He is also a member of the Trio Élégiaque with Virginie Constant and Philippe Aïche, with whom he recorded the complete Beethoven's and Schubert's Trios.
The 2020 season takes him to South America, China, Japan, Poland, Ukraine, Switzerland and Spain, besides recital tours recitals in France. He recently conducted from the keyboard Beethoven's Concertos No. 3 and No. 5 with Orchestre Pasdeloup, touring in France with great success.