Jacques Thibaud was a French violinist and teacher, born in Bordeaux on September 27, 1880. His father, Georges Thibaud, was a violinist. Jacques took his first violin lessons from him and made his public debut in Bordeaux at the age of eight. At thirteen, he entered the Paris Conservatory to study with Martin Marsick and graduated with honors three years later. He reportedly also studied with José White.
For a time, Thibaud earned his living playing in restaurants. Violinist and patron Édouard Colonne heard him at one of them and invited him to perform in the Concerts Colonne. Thibaud appeared there 54 times in 1898 and 1899, gaining wide recognition. His international concert career took him across Europe, particularly to Britain, and he made his United States debut in 1903. After several years away from performing, he resumed his career in the 1920s.
Alongside solo performances, Thibaud played chamber music in a trio with two of his brothers and, from the mid-1920s, with Pablo Casals and Alfred Cortot. The trio became internationally known, especially through its concerts in the first half of the 1930s. Its recording of Schubert’s Trio in B-flat major has been regarded as one of the work’s finest interpretations and as a model of ensemble cohesion. Thibaud was a friend of Eugène Ysaÿe, who dedicated his Second Violin Sonata to him.
Thibaud taught at the École Normale de Musique in Paris and, in 1943, founded an international competition for pianists and violinists with Marguerite Long; the competition continues today. He returned to concertizing in France and abroad after the war and continued performing late in life. His playing was noted for its purity of tone, virtuosity, and expressiveness. He was especially known for performances of Mozart and French Romantic composers, played violins made by Antonio Stradivari, and made numerous recordings. He died in a plane crash over the French Alps on September 1, 1953, while traveling to a concert in Asia. The conservatory in Bordeaux is named after him.