Emmanuel Pahud started playing the flute at the age of six, and later studied under Michel Debost, Alain Marion, Christian Lardé and Pierre-Yves Artaud at the Paris Conservatory. After graduating from the Conservatory, he studied under the mentorship of Aurèle Nicolet in Basel.
In 1989, Pahud won the first prize at the Kobe International Flute Competition, which attracted large-scale attention from Japanese flute fans. In 1992, he won the first prize at the highly competitive Geneva International Music Competition.

Later in 1992, he successfully auditioned for the Berlin Philharmonic, and in the following year, he assumed the position of principal flautist. He left the Berlin Philharmonic in June 2000, and from September of that year to the following June, he taught junior flautists as a professor at the Geneva Music Conservatory.

In April 2002, he returned to the Berlin Philharmonic and resumed his activities as the principal flautist of the orchestra and as a solo flautist.

Emmanuel Pahud often comes to Japan, and in addition to recitals, he performs with orchestras including the NHK Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, and the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, as well as with Les Vents Français (a woodwind ensemble). He also teaches master classes. Additionally, Pahud participated in producing the music for the travel section of an NHK Taiga drama broadcast in 2006. He has signed an exclusive contract to record with Warner Classics and has released more than 20 CDs, winning many awards.

Pahud has been named Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres).
He is also an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music.