The GMEM

Appointed since 2011 as director of the GMEM - Centre national de création musicale de Marseille, Christian Sebille is both a director of the structure and a composer.

In 1983, Christian Sebille began studying electroacoustic music with Jean Schwartz and Philippe Prévost (Ircam), and then in 1987 mixed music with Luc Ferrari at the Muse en Circuit. In 1993, he founded Césaré in Reims, which became a National Center for Musical Creation in 2006, promoting research on diversity and on new forms of (re)presentation of musical creation.

Christian Sebille's catalog includes more than sixty vocal, instrumental, electroacoustic and mixed works, including a chamber opera(L'alleluiah - Georges Bataille - State commission), numerous pieces dedicated to theater or choreography (Jean Deloche, Nadège Mac Leay, Emmanuelle Huynh...) as well as a commission from the Limoge Opera for orchestra, choir, three percussion instruments, electric guitar and three voices. From 1999 to the present, he has created a large cycle of musical installations (series entitled Miniatures), the eleventh of which, commissioned by the City of Dijon, is particularly ambitious, as is the thirteenth, conceived for the Château d'If in Marseille.

His research is essentially directed towards the notion of space and movement. He enjoys mixing and confronting other artistic disciplines, as well as new forms of (re)presentation of contemporary music at the borders of concert, installation, cinema and performance. 

He collaborates with many artists from other artistic disciplines, notably with Francisco Ruiz De Infante (video artist). Christian Sebille develops a computerized lutherie which allows him to invest in the field of improvisation in France as well as abroad (Alex Grillo, Didier Petit, Sylvain Kassap, Pablo Cueco, Philippe Foch, Matt Bourne, Chris Sharkey, Christophe de Bezanac...).

C Barré, an instrumental ensemble under the artistic and musical direction of Sébastien Boin, is the result of a meeting between 12 musicians. This singular group, currently associated with the GMEM - Centre national de création musicale, is made up of rich, passionate personalities deeply invested in the creation and dissemination of contemporary repertoire. 

The predominance of plucked strings, as well as instruments whose use was only exceptional until recently, gives the ensemble a distinct personality within today's musical landscape. Based in Marseille, which is both the first port and the oldest city in France, it is easy to notice C Barré's regular attachment to the composers of the Mediterranean basin. 

Wishing to share its taste for creation with an ever-wider audience, C Barré undertakes numerous awareness-raising and transmission initiatives. To this end, the ensemble devotes part of its work to training young audiences, essential to the development of contemporary music. In 2021, for example, the Ensemble is launching its Palimpseste touring project , which involves musical walks in rural and urban areas, the fruit of genuine surveys carried out in each territory, at the end of which local residents and C Barré musicians come together on stage for participatory creations. In the same spirit, C Barré devotes himself to the Orchestre à l'école and Petits Violons des Calanques projects, as well as to creation in schools.

C Barré produces a first monographic recording dedicated to composer Frédéric Pattar, released in 2020 by empreinte digitale. A second monographic recording dedicated to the young Basque-Spanish composer Mikel Urquiza, "Espiègle", with the participation of the Neue Vocalsolisten, will be released in February 2023 on the same label.

For the 2023-2024 season, C Barré is touring Europe with Stuttgart's Neue Vocalsolisten, following the premiere of a major work by composer Francesca Verunelli. This new project, entitled Songs and voices , saw the light of day at the Venice Biennale, and will be heard at the ECLAT Festival in Stuttgart, the GRAME Biennale des Musiques Exploratoires, the Ircam season at the Centre Pompidou, the GMEM Propagations Festival and the Wittener Tage Für Neue Musik in Germany.

Since 2013, GMEM and Ensemble C Barré have joined forces to pool their human and technical resources. The aim is to :

- to promote the presence of creative music in Marseille, the Bouches-du-Rhône department and the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region
- to facilitate regional, national and international networking - to deploy shared resources for productions.

Beyond that, the two parties agree on a common will to join forces in a broader spirit of cooperation in order to meet their common missions towards musical creation, reception and training of the public.

C Barré, ensemble associated with GMEM - Centre national de la création musicale, partner of the CFMI of Aix-Marseille University. The ensemble is subsidized by the Ministère de la Culture DRAC-PACA, the Conseil Régional Sud - PACA, the Département des Bouches-du-Rhône and the Ville de Marseille, and receives support from SACEM, CNM - Centre National de la Musique, ADAMI, MMC - Maison de la Musique Contemporaine, Institut Français, Impuls Neue Musik, Fondation Ernst Von Siemes, Politique de la Ville, label des Cités éducatives, Fondation Logirem and BNP Paribas. Member of FEVIS, PROFEDIM, Futurs Composés and Temp'óra.
Fondation d'entreprise Société Générale C'est vous l'avenir and Fondation Orange are the main sponsors of Ensemble C Barré.