In 1985, at the age of five, Yom heard Sergei Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf. He then told his parents that he wanted to play the clarinet. Yom began his studies at his local music school: first on the recorder, then on the clarinet, which he played with his left hand, while the teacher played his right. In 1990, he entered the Paris Conservatoire, where he was trained by clarinettist and composer Franck Séguy and Richard Vieille; he won first prize in clarinet in 1997.