Biography

“With over 90 concerts a year, Nicolas Dupont (°1992) is one of the most active Belgian chamber musicians of his generation.”  (El Diario Montanes)

As a member of the Kugoni Trio, the Roeland Hendrikx Ensemble and the Duo Andaluza, amongst others, he has performed in venues such as Wigmore Hall, St Martin-in-the-Fields, King’s Place, Colston Hall (UK), BOZAR, Flagey, AMUZ, deSingel (BE).

Based in Brussels since 2017, Nicolas frequently travels as a soloist, in duo with the pianists Olga Kirpicheva, Yunus Tuncalı and Giulio Potenza, or with his ensemble colleagues across Europe and Asia. His ensembles are ambassadors for contemporary music and have commissioned over sixty pieces in close collaboration with composers.

“If I would have to vouch for a few young artists that deserve to be heard Nicolas is absolutely one of them.” (Itamar Golan)

Nicolas Dupont took part in the festivals Musica Mundi, Festival van Vlaanderen, Klarafestival (BE), Encuentro de Musica de Santander (SP), Pablo Casals Festival (FR), Eckelshausener Musiktage (DUI), Norfolk & Norwich, Chipping Campden, Brighton, Windsor and Winchester Festivals (UK) and Buma Classical (NL), performing with Yuzuko Horigome, Justus Grimm, Máté Szűcs, Annelien Van Wauwe, Mihaela Martin, Pascal Moragues, Rohan De Silva, Michel Arrignon, Marie Hallynck, Gaby Van Riet, Michel Béroff, Lucas Blondeel, Daniel Blumenthal, Roeland Hendrikx and Valentin Erben.

Although he has consciously avoided taking part in violin competitions, he was the recipient of a number of distinctions in recent years; the Kugoni Trio won first prizes at the Supernova (2013) and Forte Limburg (2015) competitions and was awarded the Fuga Trophy (2018) for the promotion of Belgian music. In April 2015, he was given the ‘Kolonel en Mevrouw Bisschop-Matthijssen’ prize by the Brussels Conservatoire for outstanding students and in London he was a laureate of the ‘Royal Academy of Music Club Award’ (2016), the ‘Sir Karl Jenkins Music Award’ (2016), and the ‘Concordia Foundation Artists’ Fund’ (2017). With the Urban Piano Quartet, he won the Supernova competition a second time (2019), and became a finalist at the Nordic Strings Competition (DK, 2019) and the Schoenfeld International String Competition in Harbin (CN, 2020).

Nicolas is a 2020 laureate of the ‘VOCATIO’ foundation (BE). Thanks to the National Lottery and it’s players, he has launched the composition competition “PRE LUDE” and will initiate a new concert series in close collaboration with composers, aiming to engage more musicians to give a place to new music in concert programming.

Nicolas Dupont has made several recordings for the BBC3, the Belgian radios Musiq3, Klara, the Swiss Radio Suisse–Romande, the Dutch Radio 4, the Italian RAI3 and Radio Vaticana and has appeared on Belgian national television (Stingray Brava and Canvas).

Despite his young age, Nicolas’ discography includes over fifteen CD’s with music by Astor Piazzolla, Emil Hartmann, Josef Suk, Leoš Janáček as well as Belgian music by Wilfried Westerlinck, Jan Van Landeghem, Piet Swerts, Wim Henderickx and Jeroen d’Hoe. Over the course of the 2020-2021 season, he will release five new CD’s, amongst others Brahms/Vasks with the Urban Piano Quartet, a duo-CD with guitarist Stijn Konings, a duo-CD with pianist Olga Kirpicheva and a CD dedicated to the music of Piet Swerts and Camille Saint-Saëns with the Roeland Hendrikx Ensemble.

“His great violinistic talent and exceptional musical personality deserve to be recognized by everyone.” (Michel Arrignon)

He has much enjoyed playing for several years with the Brussels Chamber Orchestra and the English Chamber Orchestra. With these chamber orchestras, Nicolas has performed in major European concert halls, such as the Liszt Academy in Budapest, the Musikverein of Vienna, the Barbican in Londen,… and in the USA.
As a concertmaster he has worked amongst others with the Orchestre National de Lille (FR), Symfonieorkest Vlaanderen, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra (BE), Santander Festival Orchestra (SP),… under the baton of Trevor Pinnock, Krzystof Penderecki, Patrick Davin, Michel Tabachnik and Peter Csaba. He is currently the leader of Ataneres Ensemble, a chamber orchestra based in Leuven, Belgium.

 

Nicolas Dupont started studying violin with Dejan Mijajev at the age of four. After having gained solid technical bases, and the love of music and the violin from this great pedagogue, Nicolas continued his education with Yuzuko Horigome at the Royal Conservatoire of Brussels and with Rodney Friend at the Royal Academy of Music in London. He obtained both Master degrees with the highest honours for violin. Both professors deeply inspired Nicolas, helped him to develop his technique and musicality, and shaped the musician he is today.
In the meantime, he specialised in chamber music at the CNSM of Paris in the class of concert pianist Itamar Golan, who strongly influenced his musical view and approach to music. As a duo with pianist Olga Kirpicheva, he graduated from this school with ‘mention très bien à l’unanimité’.

Throughout his studies, Nicolas has worked on several occasions with Zakhar Bron and Mihaela Martin and he has participated in Master classes with Maxim Vengerov, Pierre Amoyal , Philippe Graffin, Ana Chumachenko,… and for chamber music with A.R. El Bacha, Paul Badura-Skoda, Rudolf Buchbinder, Bruno Canino, Ralph Kirshbaum, Walter Boeykens,…and with quartets such as Talich, Chilingirian, Prazak, Enesco, Fine Arts, Ebène, Alban Berg etc.

“Nicolas Dupont plays with an unprecedented flexibility and musicality.” (Radio Klara)

Nicolas is very grateful for the support that was given to him during his studies abroad. Apart from his family’s and friends’ support, his musical development was generously made possible by the RotaryClub of Antwerp, Delen Private Bank, the Robus, Inspiratum, SWUK and Jovaro foundations and in the UK the Sir Richard Stapley Trust, the Stephen Bell Trust , the Drake Calleja Trust and the Albert Cooper Music Charitable Trust.

Passionate about teaching, Nicolas taught the violin for two years at King’s College London and at the Royal Conservatoire (Koninklijk Conservatorium) of Brussels as the assistant to Mrs Yuzuko Horigome.

He is now a violin Professor at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles (CRB).

 

Nicolas Dupont plays on a Giuseppe Pedrazzini violin, generously on loan by a sponsor.