Recognised throughout the world as the best oboist of his generation, François Leleux enjoys an international career appearing with major orchestras and at important venues and festivals performing repertoire from the baroque to newly commissioned works. François has appeared at the Berlin Philharmonie with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Vienna Musikverein with Tonkünstler Orchester, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées with Orchestre National de France, at the Sydney Opera House with Sydney Symphony, at Bunkamura with the NHK Symphony Orchestra and at the Lincoln Center as part of the Mostly Mozart Festival. He has worked with leading conductors such as Pierre Boulez, Mariss Jansons, Sir Colin Davis, Myung-whun Chung, Daniel Harding, Thomas Dausgaard, Wolfgang Sawallisch and Alan Gilbert.

From season 2012-13 Francois Leleux will be Artist in Association with the Orchestre de chambre de Paris  which, among other projects, will see him perform the premiere of Escaich’s Concertino for Violin and Oboe. During the coming season he will appear as soloist with WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Budapest Festival Orchestra (with Ivan Fischer), Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra national de Lyon, Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte-Carlo and Malmo Symphony Orchestra. In addition to these engagements, and following on from previous success, he has repeat invitations with, Orchestre de chambre de Paris, Tonkünstler Orchester, Camerata Salzburg, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Gavle Symfoniorkester (Play-Direct). Alongside appearances as a soloist, Francois Leleux also devotes time to play-conduct engagements, most recently working with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Bamberger Symphoniker and Orchestre de chambre de Paris.

He has a commitment to expanding the oboe’s repertoire, and has had many new works commissioned for him by composers such as Nicolas Bacri, Thierry Pécou, Gilles Silvestrini, Eric Tanguy, Thierry Escaich, Giya Kancheli and Michael Jarrell.  This season he will give the Scottish and French premieres of MacMillan’s Oboe Concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Orchestre de chambre de Paris respectively. In 2010 he premiered a new concerto titled The Enchanter written by Albert Schnelzer and jointly commissioned by the Swedish Chamber Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. The work received warm praise in the press with one critic writing, “His concerto held me gripped…The “Enchanter” of the title is Leleux himself, and it’s a fitting tribute to his spellbinding playing. He turned the oboe into a multi-dimensional character, singing, dancing and leaping through his music.”   François has also made his own transcriptions of arias from Mozart’s Don Giovanni and Die Zauberflöte which he has recorded with Camerata Salzburg for Sony.

François is a dedicated chamber musician, performing regularly all over the world with octet Ensemble Paris-Bastille and sextet Les Vents Français. In 2012-13 Francois will perform with the group as part of a residency at the Musikfest Bremen. Regular recital partners include harpist Isabell Moretti and his wife, violinist Lisa Batiashvili.

François Leleux has an exclusive recording contract with SONY Classical. So far, as part of this contract he has released three CDs – chamber music with Lisa Batiashvili, violist Lawrence Power and cellist Sebastian Klinger: J.S.Bach with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Mozart with Camerata Salzburg. His last release for SONY Classical featured Strauss’s Oboe Concerto recorded with Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Daniel Harding and Serenade for Winds performed with the ensemble Paris Bastille. His latest release, The Charm of the Oboe - recorded with the Munich Chamber Orchestra, will feature concerti by Cimarosa, Bellini, Marcello, Vivaldi, Glück and Pasculli.

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

May 2013