Judicaël Perroy (b. July 21, 1973, Paris) is a French classical guitarist and teacher.
Perroy saw his father doodle amateurishly with an acoustic guitar early on Enrolled at the age of seven at the Paris Academy of Music (Conservatoire Municipal Inter-Arrondissements de Paris) he, like other students, started learning the foundations of classical music and the workings of his chosen instrument, the guitar. It was during these early years of formation that one day he claims to have an epiphany: "All of a sudden, I understood how the instrument worked, technically". From that moment on, he says that playing the guitar became easy. In 1983, at the age of ten, he enrolled at the National School Academy of Aulnay-sous-Bois (a northeastern suburb of Paris) and came under the tutelage of Delia Estrada, Roberto Aussel and later, Raymond Gratien. He was dubbed a "child prodigy"At the age of eleven he performed two Vivaldi concertos as soloist accompanied by a full orchestra directed by the conductor Andre Girard. The venue was the Theatre du Mans, in Le Mans, a city in central France.
A second prize placement at the International Competition of the Ile-de-France in 1988 at the age of fourteen was a start for Perroy. In 1988, he graduated summa cum laude and was awarded first prize by the Academy. He continued his studies, first privately with Pablo Márquez then with Roberto Aussel and Daniel Lavialle. After starting courses in Economics and Mathematics at the university, he stopped playing the guitar for two years, from 17 to 19 years of age. He restarted playing a few weeks before the 15ème Concours International de guitarre René Bartoli at the urging of Raymond Gratien and won Grand prize (awarded by the jury) as well as Audience prize (awarded by the public in attendance). Perroy then went on to earn his diploma from the École Normale de Musique de Paris in 1994 after attending classes with Alberto Ponce.The same year he earned his License de Concert (1994), he competed in the 7th International Guitar Competition of Bourg-Madame, placing first by audience assignment. Two years later (1996) he was the first prize winner of the graduating class of the Conservatoire National de Musique et de Dance de Paris.He then entered the international scene by winning the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America International Solo Competition of 1997 held that year in La Jolla, California. The prize came with a sixty-city tour of North America in 1998. Subsequently, he toured the globe both as performer and teacher. Many of his students had been competition winners, three of them winning the GFA, including Thomas_Viloteau.
Judicael Perroy lives in Paris. He has held the titles of Professor of Classical Guitar at the following institutions: Pôle sup' 93 Seine-Saint-Denis-Île-de-France (Aubervilliers) (2012 - present); L'Association de préfiguration du Pôle Superiour d'enseignements artistiques (apPSEA) at Lille (Nord-Pas-de-Calais) (2010 - present); and L'École Nationale de Musique d'Aulnay-sous-Bois (2004 - present).
Judicaël Perroy's discography is varied and mostly of traditional classical composers (JS Bach; Mauro Giuliani; Handel; Isaac Albéniz) but also for the more modern guitar repertoire (Piazzola; Nũnez; Nikita Koshkin). His transcription of Bach's second keyboard partita in C minor BWV 826, a first for the classical guitar, was released on the Naxos Records label in 2010 as part of an all Bach CD.