François Leleux

„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, exuberance, and musical clarity. Leleux has previously featured as Artistic Partner of Camerata Salzburg, Artist-in-Association with Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, and 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 2024/25 season, Leleux’s conducting engagements include appearances with Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Japan Philharmonic Orchestra, and Robert-Schumann-Philharmonie Chemnitz. 

Leleux furthers his international profile as a play-conductor via his continued close association with Camerata Salzburg and appears as a soloist with the SWR Symphonieorchester under conductor Andres Orozco-Estrada and Orchestre de Paris under Roberto González-Monjas. Additional season highlights include a residency with Orquesta de Valencia as both conductor and soloist, Leleux’s first appearance with Estonian National Symphony Orchestra as conductor, and the first of several collaborations with Kammerakademie Potsdam in anticipation of Leleux taking over as Artistic Director of the Kammerakademie Potsdam in 2025-26.

As an oboist, Leleux has performed with orchestras such as New York Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Budapest Festival Orchestra, and Swedish Radio and NHK symphony orchestras. A dedicated chamber musician, he regularly performs worldwide with long-standing recital partners Lisa Batiashvili, Eric Le Sage and Emmanuel Strosser, as well as with his critically acclaimed woodwind sextet Les Vents Français who in 2024/25 will give numerous concerts across Germany, Switzerland, Spain, and Japan.

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.