Philippe Tondre

Philippe Tondre (born in 1989) is a French contemporary classical oboist.

Born in Mulhouse, Philippe Tondre started studying the oboe at the age of six in Yves Cautrès's class at the Mulhouse National School of Music before joining the Conservatoire de Paris in David Walter's class where he won his Prize of oboe as well as his master's degree in music interpretation. He also followed lessons by teachers such as Maurice Bourgue, Jacques Tys, Jean-Louis Capezzali and Ingo Goritzki.

Very attached to orchestral activity, during his studies he integrated the Orchestre français des jeunes [fr] and the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester under the direction of Sir Colin Davis and Herbert Blomstedt. At the age of eighteen, he was appointed solo oboe of the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (Südwestrundfunk) under the direction of Sir Roger Norrington and Georges Prêtre, a position he held from 2008 to 2016. At the age of 19, he was spotted by Seiji Ozawa in Japan and became in 2010 a member of the Saito Kinen Orchestra of Matsumoto and then, in 2012, the Mito Chamber Orchestra under his direction. Since then, he has undertaken international tours with these two bands. As a guest solo oboe, Philippe Tondre has performed regularly with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France, the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

He had the opportunity to perform as a soloist with the Orchestre de chambre de Genève, the New Mozart Orchestra of London, the Collegium Musicum Basel [de], the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Thailand, the Orchestre de Chambre de Munich, the "Ensemble La Folia", the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Saito Kinen Festival Orchestra and participates in many festivals in Asia, Europe and the United States.

In 2013, Philippe played the German premiere of James MacMillan's Oboe concerto under the direction of the composer in Stuttgart with his orchestra. In June of the same year, he played his "Debüt Konzert" at the Berlin Philharmonic with the Deutsche Sinfonie Orchester Berlin. He shared with Jacques Zoon the Japanese premiere of Gyorgy Ligeti's Double Concerto with Seiji Ozawa's orchestra in Matsumoto in 2013 and participated in the ARTE program "Stars de Demain" presented by Rolando Villazón in Berlin. He also leads numerous masterclasses in Germany, Taiwan, China and Japan.

Philippe Tondre is a teacher at the Hochschule für Musik Saar and has held the position of Solo Oboe at the Leipzig Gewandhaus from 2016 until 2017. Since 2019, he has been the principal Oboe of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

Tondre is the winner of all major international competitions dedicated to oboe: Prague International Spring Music Competition, Gillet-Fox competition of the International Double Reed Society in the United States, International Competition of Japan organized by the Sony Foundation and the Geneva International Music Competition. In September 2011, he won the 60th ARD International Music Competition of Munich as well as three special prizes, including the Public Prize and the Prize for the best interpretation of Liza Lim's work composed for the competition, "Gyfu". The following year, in September 2012, following his concert at the Bonn International Festival, he was awarded the Beethoven Ring, making him the first oboist to receive this prestigious award, which had previously been awarded to great musicians such as Gustavo Dudamel, Julia Fischer and Lisa Batiashvili.