Thomas Dunford
Thomas Dunford
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BIOGRAPHY
Born in Paris in 1988, Thomas Dunford dicovered lute at the age of nine thanks to his professor Claire Antonini. He continued his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris where he earned a First Prize (unanimous) in the class of Charles-Edouard Fantin, and then 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.
From 2003 to 2005, Thomas made his debut in the role of the lutenist in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on the stage of La Comédie Française. Since then, he has been performing worldwide, most notably at Carnegie Hall and Frick Collection in New York City, Wigmore Hall in London, Washington’s Kennedy Center, Vancouver Recital Society, Palau de la Musica in Barcelona, Paris and Berlin Philharmonies, TAP Poitiers, WDR Köln, 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. In addition, Thomas has been seen in performance throughout Europe, Scandinavia, North and South America, the Middle East and Asia.
Thomas Dunford is regularly invited to appear with or to conduct chamber ensembles and orchestras. Among them are Les Arts Florissants, Academy of Ancient Music, Cappella Mediterranea, and Pygmalion to name a few. He has been conducting productions at Opera Lafayette in Washington, DC since 2017. He frequently performs with chamber music partners harpsichordist Jean Rondeau and mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre.
In 2018 at the age of 30, he created his own ensemble, Jupiter, formed out of a meeting and friendship with brilliant young musicians of his generation. Their multi-award-winning first disc devoted to Vivaldi was released by Alpha in 2019. The discography continues with “Amazone” in 2021, a Franco-Italian recital program with Lea Desandre, and “Handel - Eternal Heaven” in 2022, with soloists Lea Desandre and Iestyn Davies. Jupiter has already been programmed in the greatest concert halls in Europe and the United States: Philharmonie de Paris, Philharmonie de Berlin, Auditorium Radio-France, ElbPhilharmonie Hamburg, Carnegie Hall in New York, Wigmore Hall in London, Festival de Pâques d'Aix-en-Provence, among others.
As a soloist, Thomas Dunford has received numerous awards for his recordings (on Alpha): “Lacrimae” (2012), “Labirinto d'Amoreen” (2014) and solo Bach Suites in 2018. In 2023, he released a new album “Idylle” with mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre, as well as a 5-track EP mixing original compositions with covers, including some from the Beatles.
Thomas Dunford is fond of many musical genres, particularly jazz, and has been working 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.
2024/2025
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