Emmanuel Pahud began his flute studies at the age of eight in Rome, and later continued in Uccle, Basel, Paris. In 1985 he won the National Competition of Belgium and debuted as a soloist with the National Orchestra of Belgium.
He graduated at the Conservatoire de Paris in 1990, obtaining the First Prize. He won many competitions, in Duino in 1988, in Kobe in 1989 and the Geneva International Music Competition in 1992.
He was appointed principal flute of the Berliner Philharmoniker by the conductor Claudio Abbado. In 1993, with the pianist Éric Le Sage e the clarinettist Paul Meyer, close friends and collaborators, he founded the Festival de l’Emperi, dedicated to chamber music, at Salon-de-Provence, in France.
Pahud’s interest in contemporary music and flute repertoire is reflected in the many compositions dedicated to him or commissioned by him, such as the concertos for flute and orchestra by Matthias Pintscher (Transir, 2006), Marc-André Dalbavie (2006), Michel Jarrell (…Un temps de silence…, 2007), Elliott Carter (2008), Luca Lombardi (2010).The musical approach of Emmanuel Pahud is characterized by a unique versatility and adaptability. Thanks to his great control over the instrument and his physical attitude, technique is always reconsidered in accordance with the characteristics of the composition and its specific historical context. Through a diversified use of resonances, sound and vibrato techniques, fingers’ articulation, the various styles – from baroque repertoire philologically performed to contemporary, with occasional excursions into jazz – are expressed in a great variety of timbres, phrasings and intonations.
