Background

Georges Barrère was born on October 31, 1876, in Bordeaux, France, the second of three sons of Gabriel François and Marie Périne (Courtet) Barrère. Neither parent was musical, the father being a furniture maker of moderate means. The family moved to Paris when the boys were young.

Education

As a member of a fife and drum corps young Georges played several instruments before deciding on the flute. In 1890 he entered the national Conservatoire de Musique. Enrolled as an auditor because of his youth, he proved a mediocre student under Henri Altès, but after transferring to Claude Paul Taffanel in flute and to Raoul Pugno and Xavier Leroux in harmony, he excelled and won first prize in 1895.

Career

After supporting himself by odd jobs and serving a year in the army, Barrère found ample scope for his art by teaching privately, playing in the Schola Cantorum under Vincent d'Indy (1899-1905), in the Colonne Orchestra (1900-05), and at the Paris Opéra.

Barrère was well established in Paris when Walter Damrosch invited him to become first flute in the New York Symphony Orchestra. He arrived in America on May 13, 1905. Objections of the musicians' union were overcome only after Damrosch featured his new soloist so often that his superiority was proven. In addition to his orchestral duties, Barrère soon organized several chamber music groups: the New York Symphony Wind Instruments Club in 1906, the Barrère Ensemble, comprising flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and horn, in 1910, and the Trio Lutèce in 1913. With the addition of strings, trumpet, and drums in 1914, the Ensemble became the Barrère Little Symphony. Aided by an enterprising agent, these groups found wide acceptance throughout the nation; a typical season offered as many as 167 concerts. America had known chamber music for seventy-five years, mostly that of the string quartet; but music by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven involving woodwind instruments was not often heard, and to these Barrère added the newer Impressionists then gaining favor in France.

Slender, trimly built, and precise of manner, sporting a beard and appearing as the epitome of the genus Frenchman, Barrère soon found that audiences enjoyed his unique way with the English language, and he ever after combined performance with beguiling talks to his audiences. The Little Symphony was in demand by visiting artists, such as Isadora Duncan, Adolf Bolm's Russian dancers, the Pavley-Oukrainsky dancers, and several enterprising singers. Whatever the occasion, Georges Barrère retained his identity as a special attraction, and the flute acquired new popularity as a concert instrument.

Barrère remained with the New York Symphony, except for one season (1918), until its merger with the New York Philharmonic in 1928, and then continued with that organization. Other regular engagements included the Worcester Music Festival under Albert Stoessel and, for twenty years, assistant conductorship of the Chautauqua Symphony. He taught at the Institute of Musical Art from 1905 to 1930 and thereafter at the Juilliard School. He edited several works for flute and keyboard by Bach and Handel and a Nocturne for flute and orchestra by the American composer Charles T. Griffes. Barrère became a naturalized American citizen in 1937.

Barrère died in 1944 of encephalomalacia at a Kingston, New York, hospital near his summer home in Woodstock. He was buried in Woodstock.

Achievements

• Georges Barrère has been listed as a notable musician. by Marquis Who's Who.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Air de Ballet (Ascanio) Saint-Saens for Piano & Flute

    (From the Georges Barrere series of cadenzas for the Mozar...)

  • Johann Sebastian Bach Siciliano Flute (or Violin) & Piano

    (From the Georges Barrere Selection of Compositions for Fl...)

  • Arioso (Section of Compositions for Flute and Piano)

    (Arioso (Section of Compositions for Flute and Piano) shee...)

  • Berbiguier - Eighteen Exercises or Etudes for the Flute (Shirmer's Library of Musical Classics Vol. 1495)

    (Schirmer's Library of Musical Classics Volume 1495 - Eigh...)

  • Berbiguier Eighteen Exercises or Etudes for Flute

    (This book contains eighteen flute exercises/etudes compos...)

  • Badinerie for Flute and Piano J.S. Bach Transcriptions by George Barrere

    (Badinerie for Flute and Piano J.S. Bach Transcriptions by...)

  • The Barrere Album for Flute and Piano: Nocturne and Seventeen Transcriptions

    (Contents: Aubert: Air * J.S. Bach: Arioso, Bourree, Sicil...)

  • Sonatas for Flute and Piano, Volume 1 (Boston Music Library Edition)

    (Music Sales America)

  • The Flutist's Formulae (A Compendium Of Daily Studies On Six Basic Exercises) by Georges Barrere

    (13 pages.)

  • Transcriptions for Flute With Piano Accompaniment: Air De Ballet (Sheet Music)

Membership

Barrère organized a woodwind organization called the Société moderne d'instruments à vent (SMIV) (Modern Society for Wind Instruments), which gave concerts, and was also involved with the Concerts del'opera which held orchestral concerts at the opera house.

Personality

He was a man of unusual wit and Gallic charm.

Connections

A first marriage in France to Michelette Buran was terminated by divorce in 1916; there were two sons, Claude and Gabriel Paul. On July 6, 1917, he married Cécile Élise Allombert, by whom he had a son, Jean Clement.

Father:

Gabriel François Barrère

Mother:

Marie Périne (Courtet) Barrère

Wife:

Michelette Buran

Wife:

Cécile Élise Allombert

Son:

Claude Barrere

Son:

Gabriel Paul Barrere

Son:

Jean Clement Barrere

References

• Nathaniel Shilkret: Sixty Years in the Music Business
• Monarch of the Flute: The Life of Georges Barrère