Augustin Dumay, violin
International critics have named Augustin Dumay as ‘one of the modern violin greats’ describing him as a ‘one of the most elegant of stylists’ with a ‘sound to die for’. This reputation is underscored by 40 recordings for EMI, Deutsche Grammophon, Warner and Onyx Classics with many winning international awards including the Gramophone Awards, Audiophile Audition, Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik, Grand Prix du Disque and The Record Academy Award.
Dumay started his studies at the Paris Conservatoire at the age of ten, winning the coveted premier prix at the age of thirteen. A year later Dumay made his debut at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and the Montreux Festival. He soon became familiar to concert audiences in France, but his international career took off in 1980 thanks to his encounter with Herbert von Karajan, who heard him by chance during a recording session at a studio where he was also working, and immediately invited him to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Dumay has subsequently performed with some of the world’s finest orchestras including the London Symphony, London Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Orchestre national de France, Japan Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Mahler Chamber Orchestra and Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester. He has worked under the direction of renowned conductors such as Frans Brüggen, Sir Andrew Davis, Sir Colin Davis, Stéphane Denève, Christoph von Dohnanyi, Charles Dutoit, Iván Fischer, Alan Gilbert, Daniel Harding, Eliahu Inbal, Neeme Järvi, Emmanuel Krivine, Rafael Kubelík, Kurt Masur, Marc Minkowski, Kent Nagano, Seiji Ozawa, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, Kurt Sanderling, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Evgeny Svetlanov, Yuri Temirkanov, Robin Ticciati, and David Zinman. Dumay’s journey to the international stage has been documented by Belgian film director, Gérard Corbiau in the film ‘Augustin Dumay: Laisser une trace dans le cœur’, available on medici.tv
Dumay is also an active conductor, on both stage and disc, working with orchestras such as the English Chamber Orchestra, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Varsovia and New Japan Philharmonic. Between 2003-2013, he was Music Director of the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie, Belgium and then Principal Guest Conductor until 2015. Since 2011 he has been the Music Director of the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, Japan. For the last 20 years Dumay has been Master in Residence at the Queen Elisabeth Music Chapel, Brussels, coaching a select group of talented young violinists, many of whom are laureates of prestigious international competitions.
Dumay plays a 1743 Guarnerius del Gesu, which was formerly the violin of Leonid Kogan.
