Judicaël Perroy (born July 21, 1973, Paris) is a French classical guitarist and music teacher. He won the 1997 Guitar Foundation of America International Solo Competition. Perroy is a Professor of Classical Guitar at Pôle Sup'93, Seine-Saint-Denis, Île-de-France and Lille’s APPSEA (Association de préfiguration du Pôle supérieur d’enseignements artistiques). He is also a professor at the Geneva University of Music.
Perroy's father played the acoustic guitar when Perroy was growing up.[1] Perroy enrolled into the Conservatoire Municipal Inter-Arrondissements de Paris (Paris Academy of Music) at the age of 7 and, started studying classical music and specifically guitar. In 1983, at the age of ten, he enrolled at the National School Academy of Aulnay-sous-Bois, taught by Delia Estrada, Roberto Aussel, and Raymond Gratien. He was considered a child prodigy.[2] At the age of eleven he performed two Vivaldi concertos at the Theatre du Mans, accompanied by a full orchestra conducted by Andre Girard.[3]
Perroy placed second at the International Competition of the Ile-de-France in 1988 at the age of fourteen.[2] In 1988, he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded first prize by the academy. He continued his studies with Pablo Márquez and then with Roberto Aussel and Daniel Lavialle.[3] After enrolling in courses in Economics and Mathematics at university, he stopped playing the guitar for two years, from ages 17 to 19.[1] He began to play again a few weeks before the 15th International Guitar Competition René Bartoli and entered the competition with the encouragement Raymond Gratien and was awarded the grand prize by the jury, as well as the audience prize. Perroy earned his License de Concert from the École Normale de Musique de Paris in 1994, having studied with Alberto Ponce.[2] The same year, he competed in the 7th International Guitar Competition of Bourg-Madame, placing first by audience choice.[2] [3] Two years later, in 1996, he was the first prize winner of the graduating class of the Conservatoire de Paris.[2] He then won the Guitar Foundation of America (GFA) International Solo Competition in 1997, held that year in La Jolla, California.[4] The prize included a sixty-city concert tour of North America in 1998. He subsequently has travelled internationally both as a performer and a teacher. Many of his students have won competitions, with three of them winning the GFA competition, including Thomas Viloteau.[1]
Perroy lives in Paris and has held the title of Professor of Classical Guitar at Pôle Sup'93 Seine-Saint-Denis Île-de-France (Aubervilliers) (2012–present); L'Association de préfiguration du Pôle superieur d'enseignements artistiques (APPSEA) at Lille (Nord-Pas-de-Calais) (2010–present); and L'École Nationale de Musique d'Aulnay-sous-Bois (2004–2016).[3] He was appointed as a teacher at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2017 to 2021 [5] and is currently a professor at the Geneva University of Music.
Perroy's discography mostly consists of music by classical composers (J.S. Bach, Mauro Giuliani, G.F. Handel, Isaac Albéniz) but also includes more modern guitar repertoire (Astor Piazzolla, Gerardo Núñez, Nikita Koshkin). His transcription of Bach's partita for keyboard No. 2, BWV 826 in C minor was the first transcription of the piece for classical guitar, and was released under the Naxos Records label in 2010 as part of an all-Bach CD.