#FLVfromhome : Masterclasse Promotion VI

© Fondation Louis Vuitton / Martin Raphaël Martiq
Date
17 May 2020 – 10am

The Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle is a project during which director Gautier Capuçon transmits his insights to six talented young cellists selected by audition in France and abroad. From November to June, Gautier Capuçon and the laureates of the 6th promotion will meet for 6 sessions of workshops: two public masterclass sessions and a concert.

The masterclass sessions normally take place in the Auditorium and are open to the public with a Fondation's ticket. In line with the current situation and in order to allow you to follow the evolution of these music prodigies, an exceptional masterclass will be held Sunday May 17 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Paris CET) with Gautier Capuçon, from the Fondation and in videoconference with each of the six laureates of this sixth and current promotion, which will be broadcasted live on Facebook and YouTube.

Live masterclass sessions The live public masterclass sessions will take place from 10 a.m. - 1 p.m. CET and 2 p.m. - 5 p.m. CET, French version

The programme

10h – 11h
Gaeun Kim (Corée du sud)
11h – 12h
Jeeln You (Corée du sud)
12h – 13h
Jan Sekaci (Roumanie)
14h – 15h
Ildikó Szabó (Hongrie)
15h – 16h
Umut Sağlam (Turquie)
16h – 17h
Daniel Thorell (Suède)

Les artistes

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.

ILDIKÓ SZABÓ

Ildikó SZABó was the winner of the 2nd Prize, the Audience Award, and 7 Special Prizes at the 2014 Pablo Casals International Cello Competition. She is also a top prize winner of the German Music Competition, TONALi, Popper International Competition, Janigro International Competition, and Liezen International Competition.

She has appeared as a soloist with the Budapest Festival Orchestra under Ivan Fischer, the Hungarian Radio Orchestra, Magdeburgische Philharmonie, and the Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra. She made her debut at Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in June 2019 and the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival in 2018. The same summer, she appeared at the Mendelssohn Festival with Hamburger Symphoniker. In April 2017, Ildikó made her recital debut at the Berlin Konzerthaus, invited by her mentor Sir Alfred Brendel. Previous festival invitations have included the Verbier Festival, Piatigorsky Festival Los Angeles, Krzyzowa Music, Holland Music Sessions.


Her interest in working with living composers has led her to collaborate with Peter Eötvös and Gyorgy Kurtag. In January 2019 she was awarded the Special Prize for Best Interpretation of the Commissioned Work at the Mendelssohn Competition and premiered Christian Jest's Lautlos II at the Konzerthaus Berlin. In April 2019 with Concerto Budapest, she played the Budapest Premiere of the Rözsa Concerto nearly 50 years after it was composed.


Ildikó is a scholarship holder of the Study Foundation of the German Nation and currently plays an Antonio Sgarbi cello (Rome, 1894), generously loaned by the German Foundation of Musical Life. 

UMUT SAĞLAM

Umut SAğLAM started his cello studies in 2009 in Hacettepe University State Conservatory with Tufan Tahir Taiga. In 2014, he entered Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University State Conservatory with Dilbag Tokay. Then in 2016, he started studying at the Barenboim-Said Academy with Claudius Popp.

He is the winner of several awards, among which the second prize in the International Competition of German and Austrian Music "Magic" in 2015, the first prize of the 25th Young Musician International Competition "Citta di Barletta", the first prize in the "International Young Talents Competition" in 2017, the first prize in the Gaetano Zinetti Music Competition in Italy and the "Tremplin" International Cello Competition in France in 2018. He also performed with the pianist Eren Aydoğan at the "Rising Stars Concert Series" held by Is Sanat, and was awarded first prize and the "Meriç Soylu Special Award".


He made his first debut as a soloist at 15 under the baton of the Turkish conductor Gurer Aykal. Since then, he performed as a soloist with various orchestras such as Bakirkoy Chamber Orchestra, Ankara Youth Symphony Orchestra, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and the Presidential Symphony Orchestra of Turkey.


Umut also followed masterclasses and shared the stage with artists such as Daniel Barenboim, Jorg Widmann, Steven lsserlis, Gary Hoffman, Claudio Bohorquez, among others. In 2018 he was invited by Maestro Daniel Barenboim to be a part of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra.


Since 2017, Umut is a scholar of the "Young Musicians on World Stages"(YMWS) project mentored by Guher & Suher Pekinel, supported by the Tüpra$ Company. He currently studies with Frans Helmerson at the Barenboim-Said Akademie and plays on a Nicolas Lupot cello made in 1810 in Paris, generously provided by the YMWS Project. 

DANIEL THORELL

Daniel THORELL is a cellist from Stockholm, Sweden. Though only 21-years old he has already had great success as a soloist and a chamber musician, both nationally and internationally. Praised for his mature and expressive music making he is currently regarded as one of Scandinavias most promising young cellists. He is a first prize winner in no less than seven International competitions, most notably Rovere D'oro (2017) where he was also awarded gold medal. In May of 2019, he was also a major prize winner in the 54th Markneukirchen International Cello Competition.

Born into a family of musicians, Daniel began playing the cello at the age of five. He made his debut as a soloist at the age of eleven, performing Saint-Saens A-minor Cello Concerto with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Since then he has performed regularly as a soloist with orchestras around Sweden including the Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra. The season 18/19 included performances playing Rococo-variations, Schumann Cello Concerto and Saint-Saens Cello Concerto, as well as chamber music in festivals in Germany and Scandinavia.

 

Daniel is currently studying his soloist diploma at the Norwegian Academy of Music with prof. Torleif Thedeen and is often attending masterclasses around the world with a number of renowned teachers including Jens-Peter Mainz, Danjulo lshizaka, Maria Kliegel, Claudio Bohorquez and Antonio Meneses. He is a recipient of numerous scholarships from foundations such as SWEA International Scholarship for the arts and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

Daniel is playing a L. Bisiach generously on loan from the Jarnaker Foundation. 

Jan Sekaci

Jan Sekaci was born on in February 2001. He started to play the cello at the age of 10 in his hometown Oradea at the High School of Arts Oradea. Since 2015, he studies with Octavian Lup at the National College of Arts "Dinu Upatti". He won many prizes at national and international competitions, among which the 3rd prize at the Antonio Janigro Cello Competition in Porec, Croatia.

He also won the 2nd prize at the Young Virtuosos International Competition in Sofia, Bulgaria, the 1st prize at Klaipeda International Competition, Lithuania, the 1st prize at the ProArt Competition in Khmelnitsky, Ukraine, the 4th prize at the Johannes Brahms competition. He participated at masterclasses held by Marin Cazacu, Octavian Lup, Mihai Marica, Denis Severin, Frans Helmerson, Judith Ermert, Jacob Shaw, Romain Garioud, Raphael Pidoux, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.


In 2018, Jan was selected as an active participant at the Kronberg Academy Masterclasses, studying with Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt.

GAEUN KIM

Gaeun KIM started her cello studies at the age of four. At age 17, she has already played in many concerts in famous halls such as the Kumho Art Hall, Shinhan Art Hall, Kukje Art Hall, SECL Hall, among others.

Gaeun has also performed with many orchestras, among which Jagred Soloists, Suwon Philharmonic Orchestra, Incheon Philharmonic Orchestra, Seongnam Philharmonic Orchestra, and Bucheon Philharmonic Orchertra.

She also is the winner of several competitions, including the 2012 Antonio Janigro International Cello Competition, the 2013 Liezen International Cello Competition, and the 2015 David Popper International Cello Competition.

More recently, Gaeun took part in this year's XVI Tchaikovsky International Competition, where she was the youngest participant in the history of the event.

Jeein You

20 years old (South Korea)

Born in 2002 in South Korea, Jeein You began playing cello at the age of five. Between 2009- 2016 she studied with Myung-wha Chung at Korea National University of Arts Preschool and the Korea Institute for Gifted in Arts, at the age of 13, gained a place at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in the class of Michel Strauss, obtaining her Bachelors and Masters degree. She has engaged in masterclasses with renowned cellists such as Arto Noras, Frans Helmerson, Philippe Muller, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Gautier Capuçon, Song-young Hun, Clara Minhye Kim and many others.

Jeein was selected as a laureate for Gautier Capuçon’s Classe d'Excellence de Violoncelle at the Louis Vuitton Foundation during seasons 2019-2022, and in the 2022-23 season will also partake in the recently launched Fondation Gautier Capuçon.


This season, Jeein will perform in recital at the Seoul Arts Center in IBK Hall, as well as on tour throughout Europe (including Konzerthaus Vienna, Konzerthaus Dortmund, Fondation Louis Vuitton Paris, Salle Métropole Lausanne and Victoria Hall Geneva) with Gautier Capuçon and ensemble Capucelli. In 2021 the ensemble of seven cellists recorded works to be released on Gautier’s upcoming album ‘Sensations’. Later this season Jeein will also perform at Classeek’s concert hall in Switzerland, as part of their Ambassador Programme concert season for emerging young artists.


As well as gaining recognition on the concert stage throughout Europe, Jeein is also expanding her profile in Korea. Following her recital performance at the PyeongChang Music Festival in December 2021, Jeein was reinvited to perform at the closing concert of the festival in July 2022, this time with a chamber septet alongside artists such as Svetlin Roussev, Arah Shin, Alexandre Baty and Ralph Szigeti.


Championing many acclaimed competitions, Jeein has won several first and special prizes including the 5th International Dotzauer competition for Young Cellists in Dresden, Germany (First prize and special prize), 23rd International Cello Competition in Heran, Czech Republic (First prize and grand prize), 11th OSAKA International Music Competition (First prize) and 7th International Music Competition for Young People in Oldenburg, Germany (Second prize). Furthermore, she won both the first prize and special prize for the best performance of a masterly piece at the 10th International Competition for Young Musicians in Tallinn, Estonia, which was followed by a winners performance of Haydn’s Cello Concerto in C with the Tallinn Philharmonic Orchestra.


As a soloist, Jeein has performed concerti with the Philharmonia Korea Orchestra, Guro Arts Valley Orchestra, Gunpo Philharmonic Orchestra, Wonju Philharmonic Orchestra, Tallinn Philharmonic Orchestra, Kaunas Philharmonic Orchestra, amongst others. In recital, she has performed in many established concert series and venues including the 28th Kumho Prodigy Recital, Blue House (official residence of the President of the Republic of Korea) for the King and Queen of Malaysia, ISANGYUN Competition Young Cellists Invitation Concert, International Art Festival Invitation Chamber Music in Istana Budaya Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Great Mountains Music Festival, Seoul Spring Festival, Mozarthall Open Piano Forum Season, and Maison Heinrich Heine (Paris). 

Chaque semaine, la Fondation vous propose de redécouvrir une exposition, un concert et une masterclasse qu'elle a proposées depuis son ouverture en 2014. 

#FLVchezvous

  • Le mercredi

    • 18h

      Une visite d’une exposition avec les commentaires des commissaires

  • Le vendredi

    • 20h30

      Un grand concert de musique qui s’est tenu dans l’Auditorium

  • Le dimanche

    • 17h30

      Un concert d’une promotion d’élèves de la Classe d’Excellence de Violoncelle, dirigée par Gautier Capuçon