Benoît de Barsony, Principal Horn

Benoît de Barsony joined the COE as Principal Horn in September 2024. He shares the position at 50% with Jasper de Waal. He said: “After seven years of guest projects, I’m very proud to become a member of the COE! I have been able to experience such incredible moments of music with this orchestra that is already steeped in history and at the same time very modern in its artistic choices. The mix of all these artistic personalities of all nationalities creates something unique and powerful.”

Benoît is currently Principal Horn with the Orchestre de Paris. A graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Paris, he joined the Orchestre National d’Ile de France in September 2005 and then the Orchestre de Paris in 2006, where he works under the direction of Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Daniel Harding and Klaus Mäkelä. He also plays as principal horn with great orchestras such as Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Amsterdam) and Chamber Orchestra of Europe under the baton of the most renowned chefs such as Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Bernard Haitink.

A chamber music enthusiastic, he has participed in many festivals ( Kuhmo festival in finland, festival de la roque d’Anthéron, Festival de l’Empéri, Classic con brio in Osnabrück… ), in the company of musicians such as Maurice Bourgue, Paul Meyer, Emmanuel Pahud, Guy Braunstein, Daishin Kashimoto, Eric Lesage…
Benoît de Barsony appeared as a soloist with the Orchestre de Paris at the Salle Pleyel, Philharmonie de Paris and NHK Tokyo, the Chamber Orchestra of Geneva at the Rheingau Music Festival, the Orchestre des Pays de Savoie and also with the Orchestre de Besançon.

A renowned professor, Benoît de Barsony taught at the HEM in Geneva and the CNSM in Lyon before being appointed professor at the prestigious Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in September 2024, where he succeeds André Cazalet. Regularly invited to give masterclasses throughout the world (Hans-Eisler/Berlin, Kuhmo/Finland, Tokyo, Valencia…), he was also invited in September 2021 as a jury member of the prestigious ARD competition in Munich.