Emmanuel Pahud

Emmanuel Pahud (born January 27, 1970) is a French-Swiss flute player.

He started to learn the flute at the age of 6 and in 1990 graduated with the Premier Prix from the Paris Conservatoire before continuing his studies with Aurèle Nicolet. He took first prizes at the international competitions of Kobe, Duino and Geneva.

At the age of 22 he was appointed principal flute of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Claudio Abbado, having previously held chairs in Basel and Munich. He became the youngest principal in the history of the great Berlin orchestra, a position to which he returned in 2002 after a two year sabbatical.

He appears as a soloist across the world and has been acclaimed for his versatility, the beauty of his tone, his innate musicality and his extraordinary technique and flair. He is also a regular collaborator in chamber music and along with his regular accompanist Eric Le Sage and clarinet player Paul Meyer was the co-founder of the Musique a l'Emperi festival in France.

Since 1996 he has had a solo recording contract with EMI. His acclaimed discs include a CD of the Mozart Concertos (including the flute and harp concerto with Marie Pierre Langlamet) with the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado, "Paris" (a CD of 20th century French flute music by Poulenc, Milhaud, Sancan, Jolivet, Dutilleux and Messiaen), the Mozart Flute Quartets, Telemann concertos with the Berlin Baroque Soloists, a Bach disc (also with the Berlin Baroque Soloists), the concertos of Khachaturian and Ibert with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra under David Zinman, a CD including the Prokofiev sonata and music by Debussy and Ravel, Gubaidulina's Music for Flute, Strings and Percussion with the London Symphony Orchestra under Rostropovich, sonatas by Franck, Strauss and Widor and French chamber music with Paul Meyer, Francois Meyer and Le Sage.

In 2005, Emmanuel collaborated with the NHK Symphony Orchestra, recording the original soundtrack Komyo ga Tsuji (功名が辻) to support the NHK Taiga drama series under the same name. The recording was released in Japan under the EMI label in 2006. Tracks where his flute takes the lead include Diamond Dust Memory ~Winter~ and Green Breeze ~Spring~.