Robert Bigio flute pages
Articles on the flute
Georges Barrère
Georges Barrère (1876–1944) studied at the
Paris Conservatoire with Henry Altès and
Paul Taffanel. As a very young man in
1894 he played the solo in the first
performance of Debussy’s Prélude à l'après-
midi d'un faune. In 1905 he emigrated to
the USA where he was first flute in the
New York Symphony Orchestra, which
later merged with the New York
Philharmonic Orchestra. Barrère taught at
the Institute of Musical Art, which became
the Juilliard School. He taught an entire
generation of great American flute players
including William Kincaid, Samuel Baron,
Frances Blaisdell, Arthur Lora and Bernard
Goldberg. Barrère gave the first
performances of many works that are now
part of the standard repertoire of the flute,
including Edgard Varèse’s Density 21.5,
written to be performed on Barrère’s
newly-acquired platinum flute. Barrère
founded the New York Flute Club in 1920.
www.nyfluteclub.org
Photograph of Georges Barrère courtesy of
Nancy Toff.
Christopher Steward’s early flute recordings
Alfredo d’Ambrosio’s Canzonetta Op. 6 was
composed for the violin. Georges Barrère
plays it here with his Barrère Ensemble, a
wind group that reproduced well in the
early days of acoustic recording.
Recording made in 1915.
Nancy Toff’s comprehensive biography of Barrère, Monarch of the Flute: The Life of
Georges Barrère, was published in 2005 by Oxford University Press (ISBN 0-19-517016-4).
