Biography

image3 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.

François just made his debut in the mythical Musikverein in Vienna. This season’s highlights will include performances of Liszt’s Totentanz with the Orchestre National de France, conducted by François-Xavier Roth and a Chopin programme in the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.

Leonard Slatkin chose Mr. Dumont as the soloist to record the two Ravel Piano Concertos with the Orchestre National de Lyon, which has be released on the Naxos label with great critic acclaim.

Dumont has appeared as soloist with orchestras around the world such as the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra, Warsaw National Philharmonic, Cleveland and Tokyo Symphony Orchestras. Numerous solo appearances have taken him amongst others to Chopin festivals in Paris, Nohant, Geneva, Festival International de la Roque d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse as well as the Kennedy Center in Washington. He is also regularly invited to China, Japan and South Korea.

His discography includes the complete Mozart Sonatas, complete Ravel Piano Music, Complete Beethoven and Schubert Trios, three Chopin albums and two Bach programmes. He has recorded Fauré’s Nocturnes on period piano and is recording the complete Mozart Concertos with the Orchestre National de Bretagne, directing from the keyboard.

Chamber music is an important part of Mr. Dumont’s musical life and performances. He frequently collaborates with musical partners such as Sayaka Shoji, Marc Coppey, Augustin Dumay, Laurent Korcia, the Prazak and Voce quartets, and explores Lieder repertoire with his wife, the soprano Helen Kearns.

Much involved in contemporary music, François Dumont actively collaborates with composers such Bacri, Dusapin, Finzi, Lacaze, Murail, Tanguy.

Born in Lyon, he studied with Pascale Imbert, Chrystel Saussac and Hervé Billaut. 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 and the Lieven Piano Foundation with artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, Murray Perahia, Fou Ts’ong and William Grant Naboré.

Passionate by transmission, François Dumont is piano professor at the Haute-Ecole de Musique de Genève / Neuchâtel, and is regularly invited for masterclasses in Europe and Japan.