Life
Thomas Dunford is a French lutenist born in 1988 in Paris, the son of American viola da gambist Jonathan Dunford and viola da gambist Sylvia Abramowicz. He discovered the lute at age nine and completed his studies at the Conservatoire de Paris in 2006, earning his bachelor’s degree in 2009. He began his professional career as the lutenist for a 2005 Comédie Française staging of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. His debut solo CD, Lachrimae, released on Alpha in 2012, won the Caecilia prize, and his second album, Labirinto d’Amore, received a Classica magazine “Choc” award. Dunford performs regularly with ensembles including Les Arts Florissants, Le Concert Spirituel, and Le Concert d’Astrée, and is founder and artistic director of the Jupiter Ensemble.
Impact
Thomas Dunford is widely regarded as the leading figure of his generation on the lute, credited by BBC Music Magazine as the “Eric Clapton of the lute” for the charisma and virtuosity he brings to early-music performance. Through acclaimed recordings of Dowland and Bach and his leadership of the Jupiter Ensemble, he has drawn new, younger audiences to historically informed performance and expanded the lute’s visibility in mainstream classical programming, collaborating widely with leading singers and period-instrument ensembles across Europe and North America.
Repertoire
Lachrimae Pavan by John Dowland
JOHN DOWLAND – Lachrimae by Thomas Dunford
Suite for lute in G minor, BWV 995 by Johann Sebastian Bach
Thomas DUNFORD “suite pour lute” BACH
Come Again by John Dowland
Lachrimae – Album Trailer with Thomas Dunford – “Come again” from John Dowland
Five Lute Songs (selection) by John Dowland
Iestyn Davies & Thomas Dunford – Dowland: Five lute songs