UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay named Renaud Capuçon, internationally renowned French violinist, as a UNESCO Artist for Peace, in a ceremony at UNESCO Headquarters on 22 September.
Mr. Capuçon takes up the torch held by extraordinary musicians who have put their fame at the service of UNESCO, such as Yehudi Menuhin and Mstislav Rostropovitch, who served respectively from 1992 to 1999 and from 1998 to 2007, and with whom Renaud Capuçon performed.
In his capacity as a UNESCO Artist for Peace, he will contribute to raising awareness about the Organization and supporting priorities and activities around artistic and cultural education, the diversity of cultural expressions, and a culture of peace.
Born in 1976 in Chambery, Savoie, France, Renaud Capuçon entered the conservatory at the age of four. He is known not only as a virtuoso violinist, endowed with a talent and energy unanimously praised, but also as a humanist devoted to the transmission of music. He founded several music festivals, in particular "les Rencontres artistiques de Bel-Air" near his hometown and the Easter Festival of Aix en Provence, hosting the greatest musicians in the world.
At the conclusion of the ceremony, standing at the edge of the UNESCO vegetable garden, Mr. Capuçon performed Christoph Willibald Gluck's Melody from Orfeo on his famous Guarnerius which belonged to the Vicomte de Panette, to the pleasure of guests and gardeners.
UNESCO Artists for Peace are internationally renowned personalities who use their influence, personality and prestige to promote the Organization's message and programmes. UNESCO works in partnership with other Artists for Peace such as Valery Gergiev, Kudsi Erguner and N. Scott Momaday to the advancement of culture and creation in the name of peace.
