Thomas Dunford

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BIOGRAPHY

Born in Paris in 1988, Thomas Dunford discovered lute at the age of nine thanks to his professor Claire Antonini. He continued his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris where he was awarded First Prize (unanimous) in the class of Charles-Edouard Fantin, as well as at the Schola Cantorum of Basel with Hopkison Smith. He attended several masterclasses with lutenists such as Rolf Lislevand, Julian Bream, Eugène Ferré, Paul O’Dette, Pascale Boquet, Benjamin Perrot and Eduardo Eguez.

Between 2003 and 2005, Thomas made his debut in the role of the lutenist in Twelfth Night by Shakespeare on the stage of La Comédie Française. Since then, he has performed on prestigious stages worldwide at Carnegie Hall and Frick Collection in New York City, Wigmore Hall in London, Washington Kennedy Center, Vancouver Recital Society, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Paris and Berlin Philharmonies, TAP Poitiers, WDR Köln, and Bozar Brussels, among others. He also performs in festivals such as Saintes, Radio France Montpellier Occitanie, Ambronay, Leipzig Bachfest, Utrecht, and Folles Journées de Nantes. He has performed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Estonia, Czech Republic, Denmark, the U.S., Brazil, Colombia, Chile, Mexico, Israel, China, Japan and India.

Thomas Dunford is regularly invited to conduct-perform with ensembles and orchestras including Les Arts Florissants, Academy of Ancient Music, Cappella Mediterranea, and Pygmalion. He has also appeared with Opera Lafayette in Washington DC since 2017.

In 2018, Thomas founded Jupiter Ensemble which gathers musicians such as Lea Desandre, Jean Rondeau, Sophie Gent, Théotime Langlois de Swarte, Bruno Philippe, and Peter Whelan to give new life to early music. Their first eponymous album dedicated to Vivaldi, which received several awards and much critical acclaim, was released by Alpha in 2019. Their future projects include a program of madrigals by Monteverdi as well as Amazones, a French and Italian recital program with Lea Desandre. Jupiter Ensemble has appeared in the greatest venues of Europe and the U.S., such as the Philharmonie de Paris, Berlin Philharmonie, Auditorium de Radio France, Elb Philharmonie Hamburg, Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, and Festival de Pâques Aix en Provence.

Prior to the success of Jupiter Ensemble, Thomas Dunford received many awards for his solo CDs on the Alpha label, Lacrimae in 2012, Labirinto d'Amoreen in 2014, and Bach Suites in 2018.

Thomas Dunford is fond of many musical genres, particularly jazz, and has worked 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 Kosenko, Francois Lazarévitch, Anne-Sophie von Otter, Trevor Pinnock, Patricia Petibon, Sandrine Piau, Anna Prohaska, Hugo Reyne, Anna Reinhold, Jean Rondeau, Skip Sempé, and Jean Tubéry. His regular performance partners are harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre, and counter-tenor Iestyn Davies.

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