The clarinettist Pablo Barragán is dedicated, passionate and adventurous both in his programming and in his concerts, which have already taken him throughout Germany and to many countries in Europe and South America. Born in Andalusia, Barragán, who has chosen to live in Berlin, attaches great importance to the interaction between musicians and feels that artistic symbiosis is the ideal state of music-making. This applies to his solo performances with well-known orchestras such as Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Radio Televisión Española, Israel Chamber Orchestra, Slovak Philharmonic, or Camerata Pénèdes as well as to chamber music projects, e.g. at Krzyzowa Music, Marvão Festival, Festival Internacional de Cartagena, Murten Classics, Moritzburg Festival, Jerusalem Festival, Sonoro Festival, Festivalta or the Martha Argerich Festival.
Pablo is humbled to collaborate with fabulous musical partners such as Andrei Ioniță, Noa Wildschut, Beatrice Rana, Kian Soltani, Liya Petrova, Juan Pérez Floristán, Tobias Feldman, Pablo Ferrández, Frank Dupree, Inmo Yang, Yannick Rafalimanana, Alexey Stadler, Danae Dörken, Akiko Suwanai, Elena Bashkirova, Adriane Lamarca, Viviane Hagner, Jakob Koranyi, Razvan Popovici, Claudio Bohorquez, Justus Grimm, Marcelo Nisinman, Ivan Karizna, Benjamin Hochman, Liza Ferschtman, Stephen Waarts or Modigliani Quartet a. o.
His curiosity and eagerness to create are also reflected in the repertoire selection for his February 2022 album BOUNDLESS, on which he has united the diverse sound universes of Weinberg, Bernstein, Prokofiev and Poulenc clarinet sonatas with Sophie Pacini for the music label, Aparté. On the verge of release is another extraordinary recording project with violinist Noa Wildschut, pianist Frank Dupree and cellist Anton Spronk presenting works by Paul Schoenfield, Béla Bartók, and Ernest Bloch.
The 2022/23 season for Pablo Barragán begins with appearances at festivals such as the Sommerliche Musiktage Hitzacker, the Murten Classics in Switzerland and the Heidelberger Frühling. In November 2022, he will make guest appearances with the Slovak Philharmonic performing Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto, while in December he debuts with the Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra in Hungary, performing Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s Chamber Concerto, and with the Philharmonie Baden-Baden, performing Carl Maria von Weber’s Clarinet Concerto under the baton of Heiko Mathias Förster. In February 2023, he will perform Carl Nielsen’s concerto with the Bruckner Orchestra Linz and in April he will appear with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra.
Chamber music highlights of the season include five concerts in March 2023 at Festspielfrühling Rügen of the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where he will perform with artistic director Noa Wildschut and other highly esteemed colleagues such as Timothy Ridout, Julia Hagen, Stephen Waarts and Tobias Feldmann. In November 2022, he will perform a duo evening with Amadeus Wiesensee in Solothurn, Switzerland, and in February 2023 he will give his debut concert at London’s Wigmore Hall performing Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet with the Schumann Quartet. This will be followed in April and May by a performance with the Quatuor Modigliani in Madrid, an interpretation of Messiaen’s Quatuor pour la fin du temps with the Sitkovetsky Trio in Genova, and a concert with the Cremona Quartet at the Festival Música en Segura in the idyllic Andalusian mountain resort of Segura de la Sierra.
Recent projects have taken the clarinetist to South America and across Europe: in January 2022 he performed several times at the Cartagena Festival in Colombia, including the Brahms Quintet with the Quatuor Modigliani, and in May 2022 he gave tour concerts with Benjamin Hochman, Adrien La Marca and Ivan Karizna in São Paolo, Lima and Buenos Aires, as an emissary of the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival. Other special experiences for him were the performances of the Nielsen Concerto with Anja Bihlmaier and the Orquestra Symfónica de Barcelona, and of the Clarinet Concerto by Magnus Lindberg with the Real Orquesta Sinfónica de Sevilla conducted by Óliver Díaz. He has also performed at the Elbphilharmonie, the Konzerthaus Blaibach and the Beethoven-Haus Bonn.
Pablo Barragán was trained at the Seville Conservatory with Antonio Salguero and with Matthias Glander at the Fundación Barenboim-Said in Seville. For many years, since 2007, he also gained valuable experience as a member of Maestro Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. In 2011 he won the Juventudes Musicales de España and the European Music Competition for Youth, in 2012 was awarded special price at the ARD Music Competition, and in 2013 won the Prix Crédit Suisse Jeunes Solistes, which earned him an invitation to solo debut at the Lucerne Festival.
Many inspiring encounters at master classes, such as with Martin Fröst, Charles Neidich and Dimitri Ashkenazy, have shaped and strengthened his artistic personality. For this reason, he has been keen to pass on his own knowledge and skills to the younger generation since 2020 as a Professor at the Barenboim-Said Academy in Seville and at master classes such as Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía.
As an exclusive artist of the Backun Clarinets manufacturer, Pablo Barragán plays on Backun Lumière clarinets equipped with Viva Ligature.
