C Barré

C Barré is an instrumental ensemble founded in 2012 by Sébastien Boin, who serves as its artistic and musical director. Comprising twelve musicians with diverse backgrounds, the ensemble has, in just a few years, established itself as a distinctive force within the contemporary‑music landscape. Its unique artistic identity is expressed through an original instrumentarium that blends plucked strings, popular instruments such as the accordion, cimbalom, or mandolin, and classical instruments including the double bass and the clarinet. This sonic diversity—rare in the world of contemporary music—gives C Barré an immediately recognisable musical signature.

Based in Marseille, a crossroads city of the Mediterranean basin, C Barré maintains a special connection with the music and composers of this region. The ensemble is currently in association with GMEM — the National Centre for Musical Creation in Marseille, a partnership that enables it to fully engage in the creation and dissemination of contemporary repertoire. C Barré regularly collaborates with renowned composers such as Frédéric Pattar, Mikel Urquiza, Birke Bertelsmeier, and Francesca Verunelli.

The ensemble is particularly committed to musical creation, commissioning and premiering numerous new works. Among its major projects is Songs and Voices, a work by Francesca Verunelli inspired by Kafka’s The Silence of the Sirens, premiered at the Venice Biennale in 2023 and subsequently presented at major festivals including IRCAM’s ManiFeste, Stuttgart’s Eclat Festival, the Biennale des Musiques Exploratoires of GRAME, and GMEM’s Festival Propagations.

C Barré places great importance on transmission and audience engagement. The ensemble leads numerous educational and participatory initiatives, particularly with young people and audiences distanced from cultural offerings. It develops innovative projects such as Palimpseste, launched in 2021, which proposes musical walks in rural or urban environments based on field research within each territory and culminating in participatory creations bringing together local residents and artists on stage. C Barré also invests in public spaces and collaborates with schools, conservatories, and higher‑education institutions to bring contemporary music closer to citizens. In 2024, the ensemble supported a musical dialogue between Les Pupitres des Calanques, a choir and children’s ensemble from Marseille, and the string orchestra of the Uerê project, dedicated to children from the favelas of Rio de Janeiro.

Artistically, C Barré has performed in numerous prestigious venues, including the Philharmonie de Paris, the Centre Pompidou, the Festival d’Île‑de‑France, Radio France, the Printemps des Arts de Monte‑Carlo, the Aix‑en‑Provence Festival, the Quincena Musical de San Sebastián, and the reMusik.org festival in Saint Petersburg. The ensemble has also released several recordings, including a first monographic album devoted to Frédéric Pattar in 2020, followed by a second dedicated to Mikel Urquiza, released in 2023 with the participation of Neue Vocalsolisten.

The Société Générale Corporate Foundation has been supporting Ensemble C Barré since 2021.

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