Patrick Gallois belongs to the generation of French musicians leading highly successful international careers as both soloist and conductor. From the age of 17 he studied the flute with Jean-Pierre Rampal at the Paris Conservatoire and at the age of 21 was appointed principal flute in the Orchestre national de France under Lorin Maazel, playing with many famous conductors, including Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa, Pierre Boulez, Karl Böhm, Eugen Jochum and Sergiu Celibidache. He held this post until 1984, when he decided to focus on his solo career, which has subsequently taken him throughout the world.

He regularly performs and records with leading conductors and collaborates in chamber music with musicians such as Yuri Bashmet, Natalia Gutman, Peter Schreier, Jörg Demus, the Lindsay Quartet and formerly with Jean-Pierre Rampal and Lily Laskine.

He has been invited to appear as a soloist with major orchestras in Europe and in Asia, and in leading international festivals, with tours to Germany, Japan and Israel, and annual masterclasses at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena. For twelve years after establishing his own orchestra in Paris, the Académie de Paris, Patrick Gallois developed a conducting career which has taken him to Japan, Scandinavia, Italy, Portugal, the United States and Bulgaria, in addition to appearances as a conductor in France. In 2003 he was appointed musical director of the Sinfonia Finlandia Jyväskylä and toured regularly with the orchestra.

Gallois has a wide repertoire both as a conductor and as a flautist, with a predilection for contemporary music and many new works have been dedicated to him. His recordings include an award-winning series for DG. For Naxos he has recorded the complete Flute Concertos of C.P.E. Bach (8.557515–16), Haydnʼs Symphonies Nos. 1–5 (8.557571) and 9–12 (8.557771), and Gounodʼs Symphonies (8.557463), among other works. His recording for Naxos of Krausʼs Aeneas i Cartago (8.570585) was awarded a Choc (Musica) in April 2010. His recording of the Violin Concertos of Saint-Saëns with Fanny Clamagirand (8.572037) was also awarded a Choc (Musica) in February.

For more information, please visit www.patrickgallois.com.

The Magic Flautist & Conductor – Patrick Gallois Talks to Jeremy Siepmann

See Patrick Gallois’s Naxos interview