Romain Guyot, Principal Clarinet

Romain Guyot has performed with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe since the late nineties, becoming Principal Clarinet in 2008.

Born in Fontainebleau, France, Romain is the fourth of five children. His mother was a teacher and his father an engineer. At 6 years old, he taught himself the recorder and theory and started learning the clarinet at school aged 8. Only a couple of years later, mesmerised by the recordings he kept listening to all day long, he decided to become a professional musician.

At 16, Romain was appointed principal clarinet of the European Union Youth Orchestra, conducted by Claudio Abbado. Five years later, in 1991, he was appointed principal clarinet of the Orchestre National de l’Opéra de Paris, where he remained until 2001. He won the Young Concert Artist International Auditions in New York in 1996, one of the highest honours for young soloists, as well as the ARD competition in Munich with the Debussy Wind Quintet.

Romain has performed as a soloist throughout Europe, Japan, Korea, China, South America and the USA. He has performed all of the major clarinet concerto repertoire with numerous renowned orchestras and ensembles.

Romain currently teaches at the Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève in Switzerland and at the Seoul National University in South Korea. He released his first CD as soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe in April 2013 (Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto and Quintet) for the label Mirare. He has also taken part in many chamber music recordings (works by Brahms, Farrenc, Mozart/Beethoven, Ligeti/Janacek).

Also a keen sportsman, Romain Guyot runs marathons, cycles, swims, goes skiing and plays golf. In September 2004 he climbed Mont-Blanc (4,810 metres) to give a clarinet recital on the roof of Europe!