Francois Leleux

François Leleux, renowned for bringing “bigger-than life personality” to his performances (Chicago Classical Review), regularly appears as soloist, conductor and player/director with the world’s leading orchestras, festivals and concert series. His pre-eminence as an oboist is internationally recog- nised, but in recent seasons Leleux has in parallel established a significant reputation as a conductor, working with orchestras such as hr- Sinfonieorchester, Camerata Salzburg, Tonkünstler-Orchester Niederöster- reich and Sydney, Swedish Radio and WDR symphony orchestras.

This season he is Artist-in-Residence with Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg. In previous seasons Leleux has been Artist-in-Residence with hr- Sinfonieorchester (2016/17), Guest Artistic Leader of the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra (2014/15), and Artist in Association with the Orchestre de chambre
de Paris (2012-14). A dedicated chamber musician, he regularly performs world-wide with sextet Les Vents Français and with recital partners Lisa Batiashvili, Isabelle Moretti, Eric Le Sage, and Emmanuel Strosser.

The 2017/18 season reflects every aspect of Leleux’s performing life. As conductor-and-soloist, he will appear with Gulbenkian Orchestra, Sydney and BBC Scottish symphony orchestras, Scottish Chamber Or- chestra, Orchestre de chambre de Paris, and on tour with Hungarian National Philharmonic and is reinvited to Aalborg Symphony Orchestra as conductor. Concerto performances include a debut with Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and a return to Hong Kong Philharmonic. In his residency with Or- chestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg he will appear as conductor, soloist, and chamber musician.

Last season Leleux made his conducting debut at Vienna’s Musikverein and appeared with orchestras such as Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Utah Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Münchener Kammeror- chester, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and Stavanger, Aalborg and Gävle symphony orchestras. He perfor- med at festivals including Mozartwoche, Beethovenfest Bonn, Grant Park Music Festival, and Edinburgh In- ternational Festival as part of the Festival’s 70th anniversary.

Elsewhere in Europe Leleux has appeared at Berlin’s Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. Further afield he has appeared at the Mostly Mozart Festival, New York and with the New York Philharmonic and NHK Symphony Orchestra. In recent years he has performed with dis- tinguished conductors such as Lionel Bringuier, Myung-Whun Chung, Thomas Dausgaard, Ivan Fischer, Alan Gilbert, Thomas Hengelbrock, Mariss Jansons and Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Committed to expanding the oboe’s repertoire, Leleux has had many new works commissioned for him by composers such as Nicolas Bacri, Michael Jarrell, Giya Kancheli, Thierry Pécou, Gilles Silvestrini, and Éric Tanguy. Last season he premiered Jarrell’s oboe concerto Aquateinte which was co-commissioned by the Hessischer Rundfunk, Printemps des Arts de Monte-Carlo, Utah Symphony and Berner Symphonieorchester. During 2014/15 he – together with his wife Lisa Batiashvili - gave world premiere performances with NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and the New York Philharmonic, of Thierry Escaich’s Double Concerto for Violin and Oboe.

Leleux has released several CDs on Sony Classical, the latest of which - a disc of works by Hummel and Haydn recorded with Münchener Kammerorchester - was awarded an Echo Klassik prize in 2016. Other recordings include works by J.S. Bach with the 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.