Maurice Bourgue

'You have to die for the music.' - Maurice Bourgue

French oboist, conductor and teacher Maurice Bourgue was born in Avignon on 6 November 1939. He studied with Étienne Baudo and Fernand Oubradous at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique de Paris, going on to win a series of prizes, both for his oboe playing and for chamber music.

From 1967 until 1979 he played solo oboe at the Orchestre de Paris, appointed by Charles Munch, but at the same time was appearing as soloist with other prestigious conductors and was also conducting orchestras internationally.

From 1972 he began playing and recording chamber music with his own wind octet which he founded using musicians from the Orchestre de Paris.

He was music director of the Sándor-Végh-Institute for Chamber Music, taught at the conservatories in Paris and Geneva and held masterclasses in Hungary, Israel, Japan, Norway, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.

Maurice Bourgue died in Avignon on 6 October 2023, aged eighty-three, leaving a legacy of a large number of recordings for EMI and Philips, some of which won awards.