Emmanuel Pahud

Geneva-born flautist Emmanuel Pahud received his first lessons in Rome when he was six years old. He later studied in Brussels, as well as in Paris with Michel Debost and in Basel with Aurèle Nicolet. He won a number of competitions and gained early orchestral experience as principal flautist of the Basel Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic before joining the Berlin Philharmonic as principal flautist in 1993 at the age of 22. He also has an international career as a soloist and chamber musician.

As a soloist, Emmanuel Pahud has performed with major orchestras worldwide, as well as at renowned festivals, with conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Giovanni Antonini, Daniel Barenboim, Pierre Boulez, Valery Gergiev, John Eliot Gardiner, Daniel Harding, Lorin Maazel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Simon Rattle, Mstislav Rostropovich and David Zinman.

He is an enthusiastic chamber musician and regularly gives recitals with pianists such as Éric Le Sage, Alessio Bax, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud and Stephen Kovacevich, as well as playing jazz with Jacky Terrasson. Alongside François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Gilbert Audin and Radovan Vlatković, he performs in Les Vents Français. In 1993 he founded the International Chamber Music Festival of Salon-de-Provence with Éric Le Sage and Paul Meyer.

Emmanuel Pahud is dedicated to expanding the flute repertoire. Thanks to his initiatives, composers such as Elliott Carter, Marc-André Dalbavie, Thierry Escaich, Toshio Hosokawa, Michael Jarrell, Philippe Manoury, Matthias Pintscher, Christian Rivet, Eric Montalbetti and Luca Francesconi have created numerous new works for him.

Since 1996 Emmanuel Pahud has recorded 40 albums exclusively for EMI and Warner Classics, making a significant contribution to the recording history of flute music.

In acknowledgment of his work as a versatile musician and dedicated artist, Emmanuel Pahud has been named Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music and a UNICEF ambassador.