Fabrice Ferez is principal oboe of the Orchestre Victor Hugo, professor at the Conservatoire du Grand Besançon and co-director of the TETRAKTYS ensemble. Composer, arranger and conductor, he loves to experience and share music in all its forms. After studying at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Lyon, Fabrice FEREZ went on to perfect his skills at the Mozart Academies in Prague and Krakow. A member of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, he plays under conductors such as Bernard Haitink and Claudio Abbado. A chamber music enthusiast, his discography includes works for reed trio by Central European composers, and a CD devoted to his transcriptions for winds of trios by Schubert and Beethoven. He forms a duo with Swiss pianist Marc Pantillon, with whom in 2014 he recorded a highly acclaimed recital dedicated to the memory of Czech Jewish composer Pavel Hass. In 2018, the prestigious Claves Records label released the pair’s second recital, devoted to Dutilleux, Messiaen, Hersant and Frank Martin.
His latest solo recording, devoted to Telemann’s Fantaisies et Canons, was enthusiastically received by critics (France Musique, Radio Télévision Suisse Romande) and awarded 5 Diapasons. The second part of the complete recording of these fantasias, to be released in spring 2022, will also include his very personal version for two oboes and English horn of Bach’s famous Chaconne for violin.
Passionate about contemporary creation, he regularly performs today’s major works dedicated to his instrument (Holliger, Carter, Berio, Lutoslawsky, Harvey, Chen, Amy). He also interprets the young generation of composers with Au bleu bois by Misato Mochizuki (2000). Bruno Giner wrote Trois silences déchirées (2013) for him, and Philippe Hersant dedicated Shehnaï (2016) to him.
In recent years, he has been developing his activity as a composer. He created Nachstük for wind band and cello at the Grame festival in Lyon, Musiques en scène and Vamos, a melodrama for eight wind instruments, narrator and children’s choir at the Flaine festival. The conservatoire de Dole commissioned her Lune for children’s choir, organ and oboe in 2018, and Myriam Rignol created her Leçon de mots for solo viola da gamba in 2019. The Victor Hugo Orchestra and Isabelle Druet will premiere his new piece La Orilla del mar in March 2022.
He is currently composing two musical tales, one on the life of Telemann, to be premiered in summer 2023 at the Festival des Chapelles Royans-Vercors, the other L’Impératrice et les Musiciens with novelist Sébastien Ménestrier.

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