Eric Speller

Since 1997 Eric Speller, French oboe player born in 1971, is principal solo oboist at the Royal Flemish Philharmonic in Belgium.

First Price from the “Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon” in 1994, “Prix de perfectionnement” in 1995 from the “Conservatoire Supérieur de Genève”, he joined that same year the Monte Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra as co-soloist. He is also a winner of the Natexis Foundation Award. In 1996, he was a prizewinner in the international oboe competition in Prague and in 1997, he won the third prize in the international oboe competition in Tokyo.

Eric is oboe professor at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels since 2011 and at the “Ecole Normale Cortot” in Paris from 2016 to 2019. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses in France, Belgium, Spain, Vietnam, Macau, Hong Kong, Switzerland, the USA, Japan, Australia, Brazil, Korea, China…

As a passionate musician, his repertoire ranges from the baroque era on authentic instruments to contemporary creations. He recently created and recorded “Les fragments des belles heures” from Pierre Bartholomée (Cyprès label) and collaborates regularly with the baroque orchestras “Concert Spirituel” (Hervé Niquet),  “Concert d’Astrée” (Emmanuelle Haim) and with the ensemble “Amarillis” with which he has participated in several recordings (Charpentier, Haendel, …). He has also recorded Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne with the Auvergne Chamber Orchestra.

He recorded three solo albums with the complete oboe repertoire of Robert Schumann, Benjamin Britten (“Diapason d’or”) and Antal Dorati as well as Heinz Holliger’s solo sonata.

For those recordings he received excellent reviews in France and elsewhere, as well as several record awards. Critics have praised “his extremely attractive use of timbre, nuance and phrasing” (Diapason), “his exemplary readings on the stylistic rigor and quality of phrasing” (Le Monde de la Musique), “his infinitesimal nuances, his endless legato, purity, absolute emission, uniformity, and beauty of sound”(Répertoire).

His latest 2021 album is dedicated to the German baroque oboe sonatas.

In 2022, Eric Speller joins the Lorée company as tester and ambassador of the brand.