Yann Ghiro was born in 1971 in Nice, France, and began clarinet lessons at the age of eleven. After studying for 6 years at the Paris Conservatoire — where he gained first prize in clarinet, bass clarinet, and chamber music — Yann continued his studies at the Prague Mozart Academy, including work with artists including Sandor Vegh, Gabor Takacs, Philippe Hirschhorn, and Steven Isserlis. A Fulbright Scholarship then allowed him to study at the Juilliard School of Music in New York, graduating in 1996. On his return to France, he became principal bass clarinet in the Pasdeloup Orchestra in Paris. He also played regularly with Paris Opera, Orchestre de Paris, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Monte-Carlo Philharmonic Orchestra. As an orchestral musician, he has played under such noted conductors such as Georges Prêtre, Armin Jordan, Pierre Boulez, Emmanuel Krivine, Georg Solti, Carlo Maria Giulini, Charles Mackerras, Franz Welser-Möst, John Williams and Lorin Maazel.
Since 1998, he served as principal clarinet of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, performing and recording regularly as soloist with that ensemble. He also was principal bass clarinet in The Cleveland Orchestra in 2017-18. He has also appeared as a guest with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, Northern Sinfonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, London’s Philharmonia Orchestra, the John Wilson orchestra and Korea’s KBS Symphony. He is a lecturer at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.
