Moyse choose to pursue a professional career early having been the first flautist to win a first prize from the conservatoire after only one year of study. At that time most debut performances for wind players were private concerts in the homes of wealthy and influential individuals. What Moyse’s first professional performance was composed of is not known, but it was probably arranged and pushed for by Hennebain and Taffanal. During the 1920’s, when Moyse was in his prime, classical music venues and opportunities increased dramatically in Paris. The orchestra had not yet taken its place as the zenith of classical performance. Opera and solo performances were the rage, and young musicians frantically sought to fill un-chaired positions in operas in an attempt to prove themselves.

Those players who landed permanent positions in the Opera or the Opera-Comique were considered to have arrived at the top of the profession. Many musicians, including Moyse, were reduced, however, to working in silent film sound tracks or accompanying animal acts in circuses.
During this period, Moyse practiced relentlessly, and continued to study with Philip Goubert, and with the help and recommendations of his three great teachers (Goubert, Taffanal, and Hennebain), he began to collaborate with many of the most influential and Avant Garde composers in Europe, including Debussy, Ravel, and Faure. Moyse premiered several of these composers’ most famous pieces, and during through these performances, his name began to take hold.

Moyse’s career began to lag, however, with the outbreak of the war. Paris’s ranks of musicians and artist’s began to thin as more and more of them enlisted in the military. Moyse eagerly wanted to join the war, but the condition of his lungs (brought on by a childhood illness) barred him from entry. After the war ended, however, there was a renewed zeal for mental escape and an increase in French pride. The music scene promptly recovered, and, at about this time, Moyse auditioned for and one the solo position in the Opera Comique. Perhaps to stroke his ego, Moyse also chose to audition for the Opera orchestra, winning that position as well. He chose to stay with the less prestigious Opera Comique because it offered more flexible scheduling.

In 1931, Phillip Goubert was promoted to music director of the Opera, and decided to give up his flute class at the Paris Conservatoire. Goubert chose Moyse as his replacement, and Moyse took over the class in 1932. While Goubert was the unchallenged master on a performance level, his students claimed to prefer Moyse’s teaching style. The young musicians complained the Goubert could play anything, but was not good at explaining things. Moyse’s students consistently left the conservatoire with first prizes, and most went on to highly successful musical careers.
It was during this time that Moyse began to publish volume after volume of technique books. While on the Conservatoire staff, Moyse wrote and published over two dozen technique books, most of which are still in use today.

Moyse’s life and career were stories of both inspiration and tragedy. From the death of his parents at an early age, to the extreme physical problems in his childhood, to the loss of all three of his great teachers in the course of the two world wars, Moyse’s perseverance are a model to follow for everybody. Moyse pushed the envelope of performance levels to a new high, and his publications of technique continue to be followed today. Moyse’s was really the first flautist to show the world that the flute could be a solo instrument (which was later proven by the prolific and masterly playing of Jean-Pierre Rampal). After his death in 1983, hundreds of concerts throughout the world were given in his honor. Musicians today, young and old, continue to follow the lead of “The Grand Old Man of the Flute”.