He wanted to achieve similar chances for his son, and assigned him to lessons in music theory from age seven, and let him choose an instrument two years later.

[1] He studied at the Conservatoire de Paris in the oboe class of Étienne Baudo, and chamber music with Fernand Oubradous.

[2] He impressed the English public, having won the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra International Wind Competition in 1965, and having premiered Malcolm Arnold's Fantasy for Oboe.

When the Orchestre de Paris was founded in 1967, chief conductor Charles Munch called him to be principal oboist, and he remained in the position until 1979.

[3] From 1972, he devoted an important part of his activities to chamber music with a wind octet bearing his name, founded as a ensemble of players from the Orchestre de Paris.

[3] He took part in Poulenc's Sonata, Trio for Oboe, Bassoon and Piano, and Sextet for Piano and Wind Quintet in a collection of the composer's chamber music, with pianist Pascal Rogé;[6] a reviewer from Gramophone noted in 1989: Maurice Bourgue's is a lovely performance which most touchingly suggests Poulenc's sorrow at the death of Prokofiev.

His tone is delicate and sweet, with the subtlest of gradations, and the volatility of the outer parts of the scherzo is admirably contrasted with his expressiveness in the lyrical central section.