The French-Swiss flautist Emmanuel Pahud began studying music at the age of six. He graduated with the 1er Prix from the Paris Conservatoire and continued his studies with Aurèle Nicolet. He won first prize at the competitions in Duino, Kobe and Geneva and at the age of 22 took up the position of first solo flautist with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, a position he still holds. He also pursues an international career as a soloist and chamber musician.
Emmanuel Pahud performs worldwide with leading orchestras, concert series and festivals and has worked as a soloist with conductors such as Abbado, Antonini, Barenboim, Boulez, Fischer, Gergiev, Gardiner, Harding, Järvi, Maazel, Nezet-Séguin, Orozco-Estrada, Perlman, Pinnock, Rattle, Rostropovich and Zinman.
As an enthusiastic chamber musician, he regularly performs recitals with pianists such as Eric Le Sage, Alessio Bax, Yefim Bronfman, Hélène Grimaud, Stephen Kovacevich and in jazz with Jacky Terrasson. In 1993, he co-founded the Summer Music Festival in Salon de Provence with Eric Le Sage and Paul Meyer, which remains a unique chamber music festival to this day. He creates recordings with "Les Vents Français" in collaboration with great colleagues such as François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Gilbert Audin and Radovan Vlatkovic.
He is particularly keen to expand the flute repertoire. This is why he commissions new works every year from composers such as Elliott Carter, Marc-André Dalbavie, Thierry Escaich, Toshio Hosokawa, Michaël Jarrell, Philippe Manoury, Matthias Pintscher, Christian Rivet, Eric Montalbetti, Luca Francesconi and Erkki-Sven Tüür.
Since 1996, Emmanuel Pahud has recorded 40 albums exclusively for EMI / Warner Classics, all of which have received unanimous critical acclaim and awards and represent one of the most significant contributions to flute music.
Emmanuel Pahud is the recipient of the 2024 Léonie Sonning Music Prize, has been honoured with the Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to music and is an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music. He is also an ambassador for Unicef.