Director / Oboe

“When the space is filled by a conductor and soloist with the outsize charisma and musicianship of the French oboist Francois Leleux, the effect is doubled.” (The Arts Desk)

Conductor and oboist Francois Leleux is renowned for his irrepressible energy and exuberance. Leleux has previously been Artistic Partner of Camerata Salzburg, Artist-in-Association with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris and has featured as Artist-in-Residence with orchestras such as hr-Sinfonieorchester, Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg, Berner Symphonieorchester, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra, and Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife.

In the 2023/24 season, Leleux will conduct the Orchestre National de Lille, Dresden Philharmonic, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra. Leleux will also take part in a project celebrating Rossini with Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. He returns to Gavle Symphony Orchestra for a second recording of Mozart’s music with acclaimed pianist Eric le Sage. He has previously conducted orchestras such as Oslo, Japan and Sydney philharmonic orchestras, as well as Gulbenkian and Tonkünstler orchestras.

Leleux also furthers his international profile as a play-conductor, taking programmes championing lesser-known works to Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal, Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, including Frantisek Kramar-Krommer’s Oboe Concerto No.2. He play-conducts Salieri’s Double Concerto for Flute and Oboe with longtime collaborator and renowned flautist Emmanuel Pahud and Camerata Salzburg. Leleux will also appear as soloist with Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne under conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

As an oboist, Leleux has performed with orchestras such as New York Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Swedish Radio and NHK symphony orchestras. A dedicated chamber musician, he regularly performs worldwide with his critically acclaimed woodwind sextet Les Vents Français and with recital partners Lisa Batiashvili, Eric Le Sage and Emmanuel Strosser.

Committed to expanding the oboe’s repertoire, Leleux has commissioned many new works from composers such as Nicolas Bacri, Michael Jarrell, Giya Kancheli, Thierry Pécou, Gilles Silvestrini and Eric Tanguy. In recent seasons, he has premiered an oboe concerto by Laurent Petitgirard, Souen Wou K’ong written especially for him (2021/22); the cor anglais version of Debussy’s Rapsodie for saxophone, also arranged especially for him by Silvestrini (2017/18); Jarrell’s oboe concerto Aquateinte (2016/17); and Thierry Escaich’s Double Concerto for Violin and Oboe, whose premiere performances Leleux and Lisa Batiashvili gave with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and New York Philharmonic.

Leleux’s latest recording, Bienvenue en France, released on Warner Classics is a collaboration with pianist Emmanuel Strosser featuring 20th century French composers including Saint-Saëns, Dutilleux and Debussy and the contemporary Thierry Pécou. As a conductor, Leleux and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra released an album of works by Bizet and Gounod for Linn Records in 2019. His album of works by Hummel and Haydn, recorded with Münchener Kammerorchester, received award recognition in 2016. Other recordings include works by J.S. Bach with Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Mozart with Camerata Salzburg, and Strauss’s Oboe Concerto with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Daniel Harding.

François Leleux is a Professor at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München.

Photo credit: Jean-Baptiste Millot

Performance with François Leleux