French and Swiss flautist Emmanuel Pahud enjoys an extensive international career as soloist and chamber musician. He appears regularly in concert series, festivals and with orchestras worldwide, collaborating with conductors such as Antonini, Barenboim, Boulez, Fischer, Gergiev, Gardiner, Harding, Järvi, Nézét-Séguin, Pinnock, Rattle and Zinman.
Emmanuel gives recitals with pianists Eric Le Sage, Alessio Bax, Hélène Grimaud, Stephen Kovacevich and Yefim Bronfman. In 1993, he founded the Summer Music Festival in Salon-de-Provence with Eric Le Sage and Paul Meyer and gives chamber music performances and recordings with them and François Leleux, Paul Meyer, Gilbert Audin and Radovan Vlatkovic as part of Les Vents Français.
He is committed to expanding flute repertoire with new commissions by composers such as Elliott Carter, Marc-André Dalbavie, Toshio Hosokawa, Michaël Jarrell, Philippe Manoury, Matthias Pintscher, Christian Rivet, Luca Francesconi and Erkki-Sven Tüür.
Since 1996, Emmanuel has recorded more than 40 albums exclusively for EMI/Warner Classics, which all have received unanimous critical acclaim and awards.
Emmanuel has received the Chevalier dans l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to music, is Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music (HonRAM), an Ambassador for Unicef and recipient of the Léonie Sonning Music Prize for 2024.
He began studying music at the age of six. He graduated in 1990 with the 1er Prix from the Paris Conservatory, and went on studying with Aurèle Nicolet. He won the 1st Prize at the Duino, Kobe and Geneva Copetitions, and at age 22 joined the Berliner Philharmoniker as Principal Flute under Claudio Abbado, a position witch he still holds today.