Pianist François Dumont launched an international solo career after securing prizes at several prominent piano competitions. His discography includes numerous releases both as a solo performer and alongside Trio Élégiaque. Encompassing more than fifty concertos that stretch from Bach and Mozart through Bartók and Messiaen, his repertoire also embraces extensive chamber and solo literature. In 2021 he partnered with flutist Ransom Wilson for the album In the Age of Debussy.
Born in Lyon, France, on October 19, 1985, Dumont began piano studies at the age of five. At fourteen he entered the Paris Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique, where his teachers included Hervé Billaut and Bruno Rigutto. Additional instruction came from Leon Fleisher, Murray Perahia, and Fou Ts'ong at the Lake Como International Piano Academy and the Lieven Piano Foundation. He first appeared with leading French orchestras in 2000 and has since performed throughout Europe, the Americas, and Japan with ensembles such as the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, the Mariinsky Theater Orchestra, and the Cleveland Orchestra. In 2002 he joined cellist Virginie Constant and violinist Laurent Le Flécher to establish Trio Élégiaque; Philippe Aïche later assumed Le Flécher’s position. Further recognition arrived through major international competitions during the 2000s and 2010s, among them a first prize at the Jean-Françaix Competition, a laureate distinction at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in 2007, and a fifth prize at the Chopin Piano Competition in 2010.
Dumont’s first recording appeared on the Triton label in 2006 with Trio Élégiaque, presenting works by Messiaen and Pascal Dusapin and receiving a Diapason d’Or. His initial solo release, containing Mozart’s complete piano sonatas, followed in 2009 on Anima Records. In 2011 he received a nomination at France’s Victoires de la musique in the category of instrumental soloist revelation. Chamber-music collaborators beyond the trio have included violist Tabea Zimmerman, violinist Augustin Dumay, and cellist Henri Demarquett. Later recordings from the late 2010s and early 2020s feature a 2017 collaboration with Ransom Wilson on In the Age of Ravel, a 2019 account of Ravel’s piano concertos with the Orchestre National de Lyon under Leonard Slatkin, a 2020 survey of Fauré’s complete nocturnes, and the aforementioned 2021 release with Wilson.
