For just over a year now, the founder of Ensemble Jupiter has set aside his lute for an entirely different instrument: the orchestra. A new challenge for this conductor in the making, who is already appearing on major European stages. 
By Valentin Lévy-Chaudet
He is one of the most prominent lutenists of recent years. Founder and artistic director of Ensemble Jupiter in 2018, Thomas Dunford delights in mixing the Baroque repertoire with musicals and contemporary creations. In October, he is preparing to conduct his first oratorio, Handel’s Theodora, and is already working on his first opera.
Has conducting always been at the back of your mind?
Thomas Dunford: I think it was natural, a gradual progression over many years. As a lutenist, I played with many ensembles and discovered conducting through people like William Christie, John Eliot Gardiner, or Philippe Herreweghe. That’s what gave me the desire to create my own group, directing from the instrument as in Vivaldi’s time, which worked that way for a very long time. In 2024, I took up orchestral conducting on the occasion of a musical project called Chasing Rainbows that we performed at the Opéra-Comique, with Lea Desandre singing Julie Andrews songs rearranged for Baroque orchestra. These are pieces that require conducting: with Handel and Baroque music you can do without, but once you’re dealing with large forces like in Leonard Bernstein, I realized I needed it. I remember the sensation of being able to move without realizing it and the sound I was imagining materializing as if by magic.
You were already conducting from the lute with Ensemble Jupiter. Is orchestral conducting what you imagined it to be?
T. D.: I had already absorbed many concepts by working with a great number of Baroque conductors in France and England, but once I was in front of the orchestra, those concepts weren’t all that useful. I feel the conductor’s role is to bring together the orchestra’s awareness in a single direction. It’s really very intuitive: I try different things and see what works or doesn’t. Conducting by hand makes me even more aware of my body. For years, I didn’t realize how much influence I could have through my body and through the lute. It saves time in rehearsal, because instead of talking too much, I can show. In the end, it’s not so far from what I already do with Jupiter, only now everything is conveyed through the hands.
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