#FLVfromhome : Concert de la Classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle
- Date
- From 26.04.2020 to 03.05.2020
This week, the Fondation invites you to look back on the final concert of the Classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle de Gautier Capuçon - Promotion IV, season 2017 - 2018.
Every year since 2014, the Classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle de Gautier Capuçon takes place in the Auditorium of the Fondation. This project, created and directed by Gautier Capuçon, is designed to promote six young and talented cellists from around the world.
This concert brings an end to the 2017-2018 season of this fourth promotion whose six laureates were: Anouchka Hack (Germany), Raphaël Jouan (France), Shizuka Mitsui (Austria), Caroline Sypniewski (France), Kristina Winiarski (Sweden) and Sarina Zhang (Germany).
The artists
Gautier Capuçon
Gautier Capuçon is one today’s foremost ambassadors – as both musician and mentor – for the cello. Every season, he performs with the world’s most renowned conductors and instrumentalists. In January 2022, furthering his commitment to teaching and mentoring young artists, he established his own foundation to provide up-and-coming musicians with a springboard for their professional pursuits. To date, the Fondation Gautier Capuçon has supported 36 budding cellists. Mr Capuçon is acclaimed worldwide for his remarkably expressive musicality, great virtuosity and the deep sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello, “L’Ambassadeur”.
During the Covid pandemic, following the end of the first lockdown in the summer of 2020, Mr Capuçon set off on a special tour, Un été en France (A Summer in France) – a musical journey that allowed families across the country to attend live concerts. He arranged another such tour the following year, this time inviting young instrumentalists and dancers to join him on stage. Following such success, the initiative has continued and, to date, has drawn over 145,000 spectators to 80 concerts held in 66 towns and villages in France, giving 69 emerging artists the chance to share the stage and spotlight at his side. The tour has been the subject of five documentaries, the most recent of which aired between Christmas and New Year’s Eve 2025.
Highlights of his orchestral collaborations in recent seasons include concerts with the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Christian Thielemann, Andris Nelsons and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Philadelphia Orchestra led by Stéphane Denève, the Hong Kong Philharmonic and Christoph Koncz, as well as tours with the Filarmonica della Scala conducted by Riccardo Chailly, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony (hr-Sinfonieorchester) under Alain Altinoglu and the Rotterdam Philharmonic with conductor Lahav Shani.
He recently toured across Europe and performed at Carnegie Hall with Evgeny Kissin, as well as with Rudolf Buchbinder, Renaud Capuçon and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider. Each year, in his capacity as a chamber musician, he is invited to perform with partners such as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Lisa Batiashvili, Frank Braley, Renaud Capuçon, Jérôme Ducros, Katia and Marielle Labèque, Menahem Pressler, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and Yuja Wang, as well as with celebrated quartets, including the Quatuors Artemis, Ébène, Hagen and Modigliani.
Gautier Capuçon also founded the Capucelli ensemble alongside six young cellists, graduates of his “Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle”, an audition-based mentoring programme. Capucelli has performed across Europe and in Taiwan.
The 2025/26 season took Mr Capuçon on tour with the Berliner Philharmoniker and conductor Kirill Petrenko. He also enjoyed a residency with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden and performed with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt for the openings of the Dvořák Prague Festival and the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest. Further, he performed with the Orchestre de Paris under Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the San Francisco Symphony led by Simone Young and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich conducted by Paavo Järvi.
Over the course of his career, Mr Capuçon has forged many deep and lasting musical friendships. He is invited each season to play with the greatest orchestras, including the Philharmonic Orchestras of Berlin, Vienna, Los Angeles and New York, as well as the Chicago, San Francisco and London Symphony Orchestras. He works with conductors such as Lionel Bringuier, Myung-Whun Chung, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Tugan Sokhiev.
Memorable moments in chamber music include Mr Capuçon’s concerts with pianist Jean-Yves Thibaudet and violinist Lisa Batiashvili, as well as a performance tour with pianist Nikolai Lugansky.
He also collaborates with many contemporary composers, including Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Bryce Dessner, Richard Dubugnon, Henri Dutilleux, Jérôme Ducros, Danny Elfman, Thierry Escaich, Joe Hisaishi, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Andrew Norman, Krzysztof Penderecki, Max Richter, Wolfgang Rihm and Jörg Widmann.
Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Music), Mr Capuçon has won many awards for his extensive and varied discography. Following his album Intuition, his 2020 release, Émotions, featuring works by composers such as Debussy, Schubert and Elgar, topped the sales charts for over 30 weeks, with more than 100,000 copies sold worldwide, and was certified gold in France. In 2022, his subsequent album, entitled Sensations, became the first classical recording to reach number one on the all-genre charts in France. It was followed by Destination Paris in 2023, focused on works dedicated to France’s capital. After his album Elgar & Walton: Cello Concertos, recorded with Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra and released in autumn 2024, Mr Capuçon created an album inspired by world premieres, Gaïa, in November 2025. Bringing together works by leading-edge musical minds such as Max Richter, Bryce Dessner, Ludovico Einaudi, Gabriela Montero, Joe Hisaishi and Nico Muhly, the album was presented in concert with the San Francisco Symphony in November 2025.
His previous recordings include the Shostakovich concertos with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra, works by Saint-Saëns with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France led by Lionel Bringuier, the complete Beethoven sonatas with pianist Frank Braley, Schubert’s String Quintet in C Major with the Quatuor Ébène, Intuition with the Orchestre de Chambre de Paris under Douglas Boyd, as well as live recordings with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe under Bernard Haitink. He also recorded Beethoven’s piano trios with Renaud Capuçon and Frank Braley, sonatas composed by Franck and Chopin with Yuja Wang, as well as a solo album, Souvenirs, with works by Bach, Dutilleux and Kodály alongside a greatest-hits collection, forming a three-disc set released especially for his 40th birthday. Mr Capuçon’s most recent album, Gaïa, features sixteen works – inspired by nature and the Earth – written for him by composers from a broad cultural spectrum.
Gautier Capuçon also appears on a number of live DVDs, such as his performance of Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 with the Berlin Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel, and that of Brahms’s Double Concerto with Lisa Batiashvili and the Staatskapelle Dresden conducted by Christian Thielemann.
In addition to his myriad performance commitments, the cellist is an ambassador for the “Orchestre à l’École” non-profit organisation, bringing music to young people in school settings through learning programmes lasting three to four years. Today, there are 1,630 school orchestras composed of some 44,000 children spread across the near-entirety of France. Since its founding, more than 184,000 students have benefitted from this initiative.
In January 2021, Mr Capuçon was promoted to the rank of Chevalier in France’s Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur.
From 2019 through 2025, he hosted Les Carnets de Gautier Capuçon, a popular programme broadcast weekdays from 5 to 6 p.m. on France’s Radio Classique. An established celebrity in his home country, he frequently makes television appearances and has served as a judge on the France 2 television show Prodiges since the programme’s inception in 2014, a broadcast that annually draws more than three million viewers over the year-end holiday season.
Born in Chambéry, France, in 1981, Gautier Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five with Augustin Lefèbvre and studied in Paris with Annie Cochet-Zakine, Philippe Muller, then in Vienna with Heinrich Schiff. He has been awarded several first prizes in international competitions, including the Premier Grand Prix at the Concours International André Navarra in Toulouse.
Samuel Parent
Samuel Parent est né en 1982 dans le Vaucluse.
Après avoir étudié avec Michel Bourdoncle à Aix-en-Provence, puis Olivier Gardon à Paris, il est admis en 2000 dans la classe de Brigitte Engerer au Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris, dont il sort quatre ans plus tard avec un diplôme de Formation Supérieure, mention très bien.
En 2008, il remporte le deuxième prix au concours international Rina Sala Gallo de Monza, Italie. Cette même année, il intègre la classe de musique de chambre du quatuor Artemis à la Chapelle Musicale Reine Elisabeth de Belgique.
Pendant une quinzaine d'années, Samuel Parent a été le pianiste du Trio con Fuoco, ensemble récompensé dans plusieurs concours internationaux (Illzach, Florence, Heerlen...) et au sein duquel il s'est produit dans de nombreux festivals (Aix-en-Provence, la Roque d'Anthéron, Flâneries musicales de Reims) et sur la scène mondiale : concerts à l'Auditorium du Louvre, au Bozar de Bruxelles, à l'Auditorium de Dijon, au Maroc, en Espagne, aux Pays-Bas, en Inde, en Amérique Centrale...
Chambriste recherché, Samuel Parent se produit avec de nombreux artistes tels que Gautier Capuçon, le quatuor Ebène, Hugues Borsarello, le quatuor Van Kuijk, Henri Demarquette, Olivier Patey, Erik Berchot, Ami Flammer, Frédéric Aguessy, Emmanuel Christien, Mathilde Borsarello-Herrmann, Karen Vourc'h, Mari Eriksmoen... Il a ainsi été invité dans des cadres prestigieux comme le Palais de la Musique à Valencia, les Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad ou la saison musicale de Schloss Elmau. En France, Samuel Parent a joué notamment au festival Pianoscope à Beauvais, au Festival de Colmar, au Festival de Chambord, Musique en Côte Basque, au Printemps de la Grange au Lac, à la salle Gaveau, au théâtre du Châtelet à Paris.
Samuel Parent se distingue également pour ses talents d'accompagnateur : depuis janvier 2014, il est le pianiste de Yanowski qu'il accompagne dans son tour de chant « la Passe Interdite ». Il est régulièrement invité dans diverses académies estivales pour apporter son soutien à de nombreux étudiants. Depuis 2015, il est le pianiste accompagnateur de la classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle de Gautier Capuçon à la Fondation Louis Vuitton à Paris. En 2019, Samuel Parent est l'un des accompagnateurs officiels du Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth à Bruxelles.
Samuel Parent se distingue également pour ses talents d'accompagnateur : depuis janvier 2014, il est le pianiste de Yanowski qu'il accompagne dans son tour de chant « la Passe Interdite ». Il est régulièrement invité dans diverses académies estivales pour apporter son soutien à de nombreux étudiants. Depuis 2015, il est le pianiste accompagnateur de la classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle de Gautier Capuçon à la Fondation Louis Vuitton à Paris. En 2019, Samuel Parent est l'un des accompagnateurs officiels du Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth à Bruxelles.Samuel Parent se distingue également pour ses talents d'accompagnateur : depuis janvier 2014, il est le pianiste de Yanowski qu'il accompagne dans son tour de chant « la Passe Interdite ». Il est régulièrement invité dans diverses académies estivales pour apporter son soutien à de nombreux étudiants. Depuis 2015, il est le pianiste accompagnateur de la classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle de Gautier Capuçon à la Fondation Louis Vuitton à Paris. En 2019, Samuel Parent est l'un des accompagnateurs officiels du Concours Musical Reine Elisabeth à Bruxelles.
Anouchka Hack
26 years old (Germany)
German cellist Anouchka Hack is acclaimed by audience and press for her expressive sound and lively musicality. With a captivating stage presence and devoted interpretations, she convinces both as a soloist and in a Duo with her sister, pianist Katharina Hack as well as a sought-after chamber musician.
Concert engagements have led her to play in halls like the Beethovenhaus Bonn, Casals Forum Kronberg, Pierre Boulez Saal Berlin and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. Recipient of the Prix Jean-Nicolas Firmenich at the Verbier Festival 2021 for the best young cellist and the 2022 Leyda Ungerer prize, Anouchka Hack is a "Debut“ artist in Nikolaisaal Potsdam, the series featuring recitals and solo appearances in three seasons.
Concert engagements for the current season comprise solo appearances with the Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and recitals with Katharina Hack in Laeiszhalle Hamburg and at Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern amongst others, as well as chamber concerts in Belgium, Switzerland and Italy. Anouchka Hack most recently appeared as a soloist with the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, the Erfurt Symphony Orchestra, the Brandenburger Symphoniker, the Zagreb Soloists and the Dortmund Philharmonic Orchestra, and as a chamber musician in the prestigious Rheingau Musikfestival. Solo appearances lead her to play concerts in the Konzerthaus Dortmund amongst others.
In 2020, her Duo first album, featuring works by Dmitri Shostakovich and an encore together with Gautier Capuçon, was released at GENUIN classics, and was nominated for the German record critics award and the Opus Klassik award. Anouchka and Katharina Hack are the artistic directors of the meetMUSIC Open Air Festival in Mettingen, Germany, which celebrated its first two successful editions in 2021 and 2022. Next to the big works of the Duo repertoire, the sisters incorporate free Duo improvisations in their concerts as well.
Anouchka Hack is a scholarship holder of the Mozart-Gesellschaft Dortmund and the Deutsche Stiftung Musikleben. She is currently studying with Prof. Frans Helmerson at the Kronberg Academy. As a prizewinner of the Competition of the German Music Instruments fund, Anouchka Hack plays on a Cello by Bartolomeo Tassini, Venice 1769.
Raphaël Jouan
23 years old
French, lives in Paris (FR)
Raphaël is a young cellist motivated by his love of sharing music. He took up his instrument at the age of 5 with Jean Adolphe, before studying with Xavier Gagnepain. In 2017, he got his master degree in the class of Michel Strauss and Guillaume Paoletti at the Conservatoire Supérieur de Paris. He has been advised by G. Hoffman, J. Pernoo, B. Cocset, G. Rivinius, J. P. Maintz, L. Harell, and in jazz cello with V. Ségal and S. Braun.
Raphaël’s style is characterised by his curiosity and openness. His personal repertoire includes several concertos (Vivaldi on baroque instrument, Haydn, Schumann, Saint-Saens, Beethoven…) with orchestra, as well as the Bach cello suites, which he first performed at the ‘Festival de la Haute Clarée’, invited by Zhu Xiao Mei with whom he has been studying piano. He is a member of the Hussam Aliwat Quartet, formed by two cellos one oud and drums. Mix between rock, groove and improvisation, they play in jazz clubs like the Sunset.
Passionate about chamber music, he gives concerts in prestigious concert halls (Pleyel, Cortot, Philharmonie de Paris) and during various festivals in France (Les Rencontres Musicales d’Evian, Via Aeterna, Folles Journées de Nantes) and abroad (Hohenstaufen Festival, Molaeb Festival in Lebanon, Folles Journées in Varsovie and Tokyo…).
In 2014, Raphaël founded the Hélios Trio with Alexis Gournel (piano) and Camille Fonteneau (violin). Currently studying with Itamar Golan and François Salque, they benefited from the teachings of Claire Désert and the Wanderer Trio. Laureates of international competitions (Illzach, Prix d’Europe…) they have also been advised by G. Paoletti, Y. Markovitch, E. Strosser, C. Ivaldi, J. Meissl, G. Sutre, the Modigliani and Ebène quartets… They are in residency at the festival de la Roque d’Anthéron in 2015 and 2016, and at the festival des Arcs since 2016.
Raphaël plays a cello by Etienne Vatelot, generously lent by Michel Strauss.
Shizuka Mitsui
25 years old
Japanese, lives in Salzburg (Austria)
Born in 1992 in Yokohama Japan, Shizuka Mitsui started playing the cello at the age of five, in Boston USA where he spent his childhood. From 1998 to 2014 he studied at the Toho-Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo under Hakuro Mori, and regularly attended the masterclass of Wen-Sinn Yang. From 2011 to 2012 he worked at the Academy of NHK Symphony Orchestra.
In 2014, he pursued his studies at the Mozarteum University Salzburg in the class of Giovanni Gnocchi. Since 2016, he has been studying under Clemens Hagen. He has also had a lot of opportunities coached by other eminent cellists, such as Jens Peter Maintz, Natalia Gutman, Jian Wang, Danjulo Ishizaka, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Masato Iwai and Wolfgang Boettcher.
Shizuka is a laureate of numerous competitions at home and abroad. For instance, the Gold Prize at the Izumino-Mori Cello Competition (2009), the 2nd prize at the Japan Classic Competition (no 1st prize, 2010), Kirishima International Music Festival Award (2011), the 1st Prize at the Enrico Mainardi Competition (2016), and the 2nd prize at the Tokyo Music Competition (2017). In May 2017, he was one of the Semifinalists of the prestigious Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels.
Shizuka Mitsui was invited to appear at the International Cello Festival “Alfredo Piatti” in Bergamo, where he performed all Piatti’s Caprices in one concert. He also performed at “the Mozart Festival” in Cuba, “Prize Winner Concert” in Salzburg Festival, and Kusatsu International Music Festival, and “The Japan Festival” in Indiana University.
Caroline Sypniewski
29 years old (France)
Caroline is a young cellist from Toulouse who studied with Jérôme Pernoo in the CNSM of Paris, and then was chosen to become part of the prestigious Classe d’Excellence of Gautier Capuçon at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, as well as Clemens Hagen’s class in Salzbourg Mozarteum. She also completed studies in both full Piano and Piano accompaniment in Paris.
She has performed as a soloist at numerous festivals, among them the Pablo Casals festival, the Festival de Pâques in Aix-en-Provence, Musique à l’Emperi, W Krainie Chopina à Varsovie, Orangerie de Sceaux, the Edinburgh Festival, the Ohrid Summer Festival, the Clos-Vougeot festival, and the Variations Musicales de Tannay. She has also appeared at most of Europe’s top concert halls such as the Victoria Hall, the Paris Philharmonie, the Champs-Elysées Theatre, the Opera Garnier, the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Baden-Baden Kurhaus, Schloss Elmau, the Salle Cortot, the Casa de Música in Porto, and the Louis Vuitton Foundation. In April 2018, she was selected to represent the Van Cleef & Arpels Brand at a private event at Beijing’s Summer Palace.
She has played with several great artists such as Emmanuel Pahud, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Alexandre Kantorow, Adam Laloum, and Abdel Rahman El Bacha. She plays regularly in string trio with her two sisters Anna and Magdalena Sypniewski. As the soloist, she has played with the Baden-Baden Philharmonic Orchestra, the Dijon-Bourgogne Orchestra, the Apassionato Ensemble, the Chamber Orchestra of Varsovia Philharmonie, the Elektra Orchestra, and the New-Europe ChamberOrchestra.
She has been awarded several prizes and distinctions including the "Révélation Classique » Adami 2017, the young Talent prize of the Clos-Vougeot Wine and Music Festival, a scholarship from the Safran Foundation, the Ginette Neveu prize at the Carl Flesh Academy 2015, and the Grand Prize of the Ravel Academy 2018.
Kristina Winiarski
23 years old
Swedish, lives in Stockholm (Sweden)
Kristina is currently doing her advanced soloist diploma studies at the Malmö Academy of Music in Sweden with professor Torleif Thedéen.
In 2012-2014, she studied with Professor Valter Despalj at the Zagreb Academy of Music. She is also a graduate from the Edsberg Chamber Music Institute/Royal College of Music in Stockholm, where she studied with professor Torleif Thedéen and Mats Zetterqvist.
Kristina was born in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1994 and started to play the cello at the age of six with the Russian teacher Maria Zhuravleva. She made her solo debut at the age of 8 with the “Cantus Firmus Chamber Orchestra” in Moscow. She has since then performed with many orchestras internationally, including the St Petersburg State Symphony Orchestra, the Zagreb Philharmonic, Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra, National Philharmonic of Maryland, The National Symphony Orchestra in Washington D.C among others. Future engagements in include a solo debut with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra in Sweden.
In 2016, she won the ‘Soloist Prize’ at the Royal College of music in Stockholm and got to perform Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with the RCM Symphony Orchestra. She is a scholarship holder from the Royal Music Academy in Sweden, the John Andersson Foundation and the International Music academy in the Principality of Liechtenstein.
Kristina has a big passion for chamber music, and she therefore frequently enjoys playing at festivals in Sweden and around Europe. Recent engagements include Musethica Festival Israel, Podium Festival Croatia, Festival Next Generation in Switzerland and the Chamber Music Festival in Allhelgona Church, Stockholm. Together with the Swedish pianist Pontus Carron, she is a prize winner in the prestigious Swedish Duo Competition 2017.
Throughout the years, Kristina has had the opportunity to collaborate with and receive coaching from many esteemed musicians, such as Konstantin Bogino, Dora Schwarzberg, Andreas Brantelid, Nazanin Aghakhani, Bengt Forsberg, Reinhard Latzko, Jens Peter Maintz, Frans Helmerson and Anner Bylsma.
Sarina Zhang
21 years old
American/Canadian, lives in Weimar (Germany)
Born in Canada and raised in San Diego, California, pianist and cellist Sarina Zhang made her debut with the New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall in November 2011. Sarina was named a National YoungArts Winner and a Davidson Fellow by the Davidson Institute for Talent Development.
She is also the first person in the history of the Aspen Music Festival to have won both the low strings competition and the piano concerto competition. Sarina has been featured five times on the national radio program “From the Top”, as both a pianist and a cellist, in addition to her appearance on their TV series. Sarina has performed as a soloist with the St. Louis, Detroit, San Diego, Albany, and Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestras, as well as the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Prague Youth Philharmonic, among others. Most recently, Sarina made her debut with the Juilliard Orchestra and Maestro Susanna Mälkki performing Schumann’s A minor Piano Concerto in Alice Tully Hall. Sarina was also selected as one of eleven young artists to attend Music@Menlo’s prestigious Chamber Music Institute International Program in 2015. Sarina graduated in May with a Bachelor of Music from the Juilliard School, where she studied piano with Yoheved Kaplinsky and Hung-Kuan Chen, and cello with Richard Aaron and David Finckel and was a proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. She will be continuing her studies this fall at the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar, Germany, with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.
Chaque semaine, la Fondation vous propose de redécouvrir une exposition, un concert et une masterclasse qu'elle a proposées depuis son ouverture en 2014.