François Dumont

Biography

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. He just made his debut in the mythical Musikverein in Vienna. Other highlights include performances of Liszt’s Totentanz with the Orchestre National de France, conducted by François-Xavier Roth and a Chopin programme at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris.
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 with artists such as Dmitri Bashkirov, Leon Fleisher, Murray Perahia, Fou Ts’ong and William Grant Naboré at the Lieven Piano Foundation.
Leonard Slatkin chose him as the soloist to record the two Ravel Piano Concertos with the Orchestre National de Lyon.
Dumont has appeared as soloist with orchestras around the world such as the Mariinsky Theatre and Cleveland Orchestras. Numerous solo appearances have taken him amongst others to Chopin festivals in Paris, Nohant, Geneva, La Roque-d’Anthéron, Piano aux Jacobins and Kennedy Center in Washington. He is also regularly invited to China, Japan and South Korea.
His discography includes over 40 CDs, with solo, chamber and concerto works from Bach, Mozart, Chopin to Messiaen. Chamber music is an important part of Dumont’s musical life, with partners such as Sayaka Shoji, Marc Coppey, Augustin Dumay, Laurent Korcia, the Pražák and Voce quartets, and he explores Lieder repertoire with his wife, the soprano Helen Kearns.
Much involved in contemporary music, he actively collaborates with composers such as Bacri, Dusapin, Finzi, Lacaze, Murail, Tanguy. Passionate by transmission, Dumont is piano professor at the Haute école de musique de Genève – Neuchâtel.