The French oboist Gabriel Pidoux has made it his mission to bring the oboe and its versatility to life through unique listening experiences. He has appeared as a soloist with orchestras such as the Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Orchestre de Chambre Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie and the RTV Slovenia Symphony Orchestra, and performs regularly with Gli Incogniti, the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées and Raphaël Pichon’s Pygmalion.
He has been a guest of numerous festivals, among them La Folle Journée in Nantes, the chamber music festival Salon-de-Provence, the Festival Radio France Occitanie Montpellier and Nouveaux Horizons in Aix-en-Provence, where he gave the world premiere of Dai Fujikura’s Mirage. In 2025 he makes his debuts at the Lucerne Festival and the Salzburg Festival.
Gabriel Pidoux has a strong interest in the history of his instrument. He deepened his knowledge of the Baroque oboe with Antoine Torunczyk and is a co-founder of the ensemble Sarbacanes, which specializes in historically informed performances of 18th-century wind music. In September 2024 it released its second album, Pyrotechnies, featuring 18th-century German trio sonatas.
In 2022 Gabriel Pidoux released his debut album Romance with the pianist Jorge González Buajasán on Alpha Classics. It is dedicated to Romantic repertory and won awards including five Diapasons d’Or. His other CD recordings include Mozart’s Oboe Concerto K. 314 with the Mozarteum Orchestra under Howard Griffith as part of the series ‘Next Generation Mozart’, as well as the Sinfonia concertante for four wind instruments K. 297b with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Zehetmair.
Gabriel Pidoux was born in Paris in 1996, and at an early age broke away from his family’s string-playing tradition to take up the oboe. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire with Jacques Tys and David Walter and in Munich with François Leleux. He also participated in masterclasses with renowned teachers such as Jean-Louis Capezzali and Maurice Bourgue.
He caused a sensation with his international competition successes, which have included winning the Prague Spring International Music Competition in 2019 and being the first oboist to be named ‘Discovery of the Year’ at the Victoires de la Musique Classique in 2020.
