Nicolas Dupont (°1992) played his first solo concert at the age of 12, and since then he has been playing solo and chamber music concerts in Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and the USA.
Being very active as a chamber musician, he is the founding member of the Kugoni Trio (violin-saxophonepiano), and the Duo Andaluza (violin-guitar). He also regularly performs in duo with the Russian pianist Olga Kirpicheva.
Nicolas Dupont took part in festivals such as Musica Mundi (BE), Enucentro de Musica de Santander (SP), Pablo Casals Festival (FR), Cary Cross Currents Chamber Music Festival (USA), Festival Van Vlaanderen (BE), Eckelshausener Musiktage (GER) and Klarafestival (BE) and performed together with artists such as Yuzuko Horigome, Mihaela Martin (Michelangelo Quartet), Julius Berger, Elizabeth Kufferath (Tetzlaff Quartet) and Valentin Erben (Alban Berg Quartett).
Nicolas Dupont was a prize winner at the national competitions Jonge Solisten aan Zee (first prize, 2006), Belfius Classics (first prize, 2008), Supernova (first prize, 2013) and Forte (first prize, 2015). In April of 2015 the Royal Conservatory of Brussels awarded him the ‘Kolonel en Mevrouw Bisschop-Matthijssen’ prize for outstanding students.
He has made recordings for the Belgian radios Musiq3, Klara and the Swiss Radio Suisse-Romande and has appeared on national television (Cultuur7 and Canvas).
Very keen on contemporary music, Nicolas Dupont has already created pieces by Jan Van Damme, Thierry Pécou, Erik Desimpelaere, Wilfried Westerlinck, Paul Steegmans, Benjamien Lycke, Jeroen d’Hoe,…
Nicolas Dupont started his violin studies with Dejan Mijajev, at the age of four. He went on to study at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels in the class of mrs. Yuzuko Horigome (first prize Queen Elisabeth Competition 1980) and at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique et de Danse of Paris in the chamber music class of pianist Itamar Golan.
After obtaining these two Master degrees with first class honours, he will start postgraduate studies from September 2015 on at the Royal Academy of Music in London in the class of mr. Rodney Friend (former concertmaster of New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and BBC Symphony Orchestras).
Nicolas is being kindly supported by the RotaryClub of Antwerp, ROBUS foundation, SWUK Vlaanderen and Inspiratum (Axel Vervoordt foundation).
He has followed master classes with Philippe Graffin, Mihaela Martin, Ana Chumachenko, Ernst Kovacic, Zakhar Bron, Pierre Amoyal,... and for chamber music with A. R. El Bacha, Paul Badura-Skoda, Gavriel Lipkind, Bruno Canino, Michel Arrignon, Maxim Vengerov, Walter Boeykens,… and with quartets such as Talich, Prazak, Danel, Chilingirian, Maggini, Enesco, Fine Arts, Ebène, Alban Berg etc.
Nicolas Dupont plays on a beautiful 18th Century Italian violin, kindly on loan by the Maggini-Stiftung and Segelman Trust.