Lola Descours studied at the Conservatoire of Paris (CNSMDP) with Marc Trenel. She also studied with bassoon masters Dag Jensen in Germany and Gustavo Nunes in La Escuela Reina Sofia in Madrid. She won first prize at the International Double Reed Society’s (IDRS) Young Competition in 2009 in Birmingham. In 2011, she was laureate of the Crusell Competition in Finland, the Lodz Competition in Poland and in 2018 the IDRS Competition in Spain. In 2019, she was prize-winner at the prestigious Tchaikovsky Competition.

An accomplished orchestral musician, Lola is currently Solo Bassoon in Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under chief conductor Lahav Shani. Previously, she was solo bassoonist of the Frankfurt Opera. Her talent was noticed at an early stage when she joined the Orchestre de Paris at the age of 19. There she played under the direction of C. Eschenbach, P. Jarvi, P. Boulez, L. Maazel, V. Gergiev and D. Harding. She is a regular guest in world renowned orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouworkest in Amsterdam, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the London Philharmonic and the Bamberger Symphoniker with which she has performed on the world greatest stages. As a soloist, she has recently performed with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra in Japan and with the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in Russia.

Eager to constantly expand her artistic boundaries and her sources of inspiration, she performed at numerous festivals all around the world. In 2018, she founded the Cocteau Trio with clarinetist Renaud Guy-Rousseau (Orchestre National de France) and oboist Ilyes Boufadden (Orchestre de Chambre de Paris) and more recently Trio ABC with accordion and double bass with Elodie Soulard and Ulysse Vigreux. For her critically acclaimed first album Bassoon Steppes she commissioned a piece by one of today’s most important Russian composers Lera Auerbach.

Passing het experience on to the next generation of musicians is another one of her many facets. She has been a regular coach at the Verbier Festival and with the French Youth Orchestra. She teaches at the Pôle supérieur of Aix-en-Provence – IESM and is invited to give masterclasses in Italy, Switzerland, Chili, Colombia, France, Germany. Additionally, she has recently set up three series of videos on the bassoon with filmmaker Pierre Dugowson.