His touring commitments have included solo and group performances at major festivals all across Canada, the USA and Europe. In parallel, he has released over twenty albums, winning multiple nominations for the Juno Awards and West Coast Music Awards. His “Dice Thrown” LP, a duo with French pianist Benoît Delbecq, was chosen by Jazzman magazine as its Album of the Year in 2002. DownBeat magazine has twice named him as a “talent deserving of greater recognition,” and the Critics Circle at the same publication marked him out as a “rising star” in 2008, 2012 and 2013.

A graduate of McGill and Yale universities, he has also been Artist in Residence at the Banff Centre for the Arts and at Fondation Civitella Ranieri, in Umbria, Italy.

He is a faculty member at Vancouver Community College School of Music, and for five years served as Artistic Director of the Vancouver Creative Music Institute. He also teaches master’s and doctorate level clarinet courses at the University of British Columbia. François Houle was appointed as an Associate Composer by the Canadian Music Centre in 2008.