Georges Barrère

Georges Barrère (Bordeaux, October 31, 1876 – New York, June 14, 1944) was a French flutist.

Biography

Early life Georges Barrère was the son of a cabinetmaker, Gabriel Barrère, and Marie Périne Courtet, an illiterate farmer's daughter from Guilligomarc'h. They married in 1874. They had previously had a son Étienne, out of wedlock, in 1872. George did not regard his parents as musical although his father wished he had been a tenor instead of a carpenter. In 1879, the family moved to Paris. By the year 1886, they had moved to Épernon near Chartres.

The story goes that Étienne had a tin whistle which he discarded in favour of a violin. Georges got the whistle and later boasted that he had become a virtuoso on the six-holed instrument while Étienne was still struggling with elementary scales on the fiddle. The boys went to École Drouet, the village school and although modest, they were the beneficiaries of the new Jules Ferry laws which mandated free education for all French children. The principal of the school was a bandmaster in his spare time and Georges used to follow the band, when it marched through the streets of the town, tooting on his penny-whistle. The band members actually encouraged him and when the Barrères moved back to Paris in 1888, Monsieur Chouet, the principal, recommended that Gabriel let Georges have music lessons. (which later merged with the New York Philharmonic), a position he accepted and in which he remained for the rest of his life but for one break. Some major works were written for him including the Poem of Charles Tomlinson Griffes and Density 21.5 by Edgard Varèse.

Barrère founded the Barrère Ensemble of Wind Instruments in 1910 and the Little Symphony chamber orchestra in 1915.

He died on June 14, 1944.