Jean-François Paillard was a French conductor.
He was born in Vitry-le-François and received his musical training at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he won first prize in music history, and the Salzburg Mozarteum.
He also earned a degree in mathematics at the Sorbonne.
In 1953, he founded the Jean-Marie Leclair Instrumental Ensemble, which in 1959 became the Orchestre de Chambre Jean-François Paillard. The ensemble has made recordings of much of the Baroque repertoire for Erato Records and has toured throughout Europe and the United States. It has also recorded with many leading French instrumentalists, including Maurice André, Jean-Pierre Rampal, Pierre Pierlot, Lily Laskine, Jacques Lancelot, Michel Arrignon.
A 1968 recording by the orchestra of the "Canon and Gigue for 3 violins and basso continuo" by Johann Pachelbel, familiarly known as Pachelbel's Canon, nearly single-handedly brought the piece from obscurity to great renown. The recording was done in a more Romantic style, at a significantly slower tempo than it had been played at before, and contained obligato parts, written by Paillard, that are now closely associated with the piece.