Ernest Rombout was born in 1959 in the Netherlands. After having studied as a guest student at the Royal conservatory in The Hague for one year, he was admitted to the class of Professor Heinz Holliger in Freiburg, Germany. In 1981 he passed his final examinations cum laude which allowed him to continue studying for the rarely-awarded Soloist’s Diploma. In 1984 he was awarded the Soloist’s Diploma cum laude. Subsequently he studied with Nikolaus Harnoncourt and Maurice Bourgue. He made his debut as a soloist in 1983 in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam with the oboe concerto by R. Strauss. In 1985 he was invited to become Professor of Oboe at the conservatory of Utrecht.

Since 1981, Ernest Rombout has enjoyed a busy solo career, appearing in festivals such as the Biennale in Venice, the Ludwigsburger Festspiele, the Donaueschinger Musiktage, the Takefu International Music Festival in Japan and the Summerfestival in Los Angeles.

Conductors he has worked with include Christopher Hogwood, Marc Foster, Ernest Bour, Ed Spanjaard and Heinz Holliger. In addition to his performances with such orchestras as the Radio Symphonie Orchester Berlin, The Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna String Soloists and the New Ensemble (Amsterdam), Rombout has made numerous radio, television and CD recordings all over Europe. In 1990 he made his first tour to the USA.

On his first solo-CD (DECCA) in 1994, he recorded the oboe concertos by Haydn and Mozart with the Concertgebouw Chamber Orchestra. In the summer of 1998 he was a member of the jury of the International Competition for Oboe in Geneva. Since Ernest Rombout has also engaged himself in modern music, numerous compositions has been composed for him by such noted composers as Luca Francesconi, David del Puerto, Maurice Weddington and Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf.