Théodore Labarre

Biography

Théodore François Joseph Berry Labarre (23 March 1805 – 9 March 1870) was a French harpist and composer. He lived in Paris and in London and was awarded the Prix de Rome in 1823 as well as the Légion d'honneur in 1862.

Life

Labarre was born in Paris to parents Pierre Charles Berry Labarre and Sophie Genevelly. He studied the harp with Jacques-Georges Cousineau and at the Paris Conservatoire with François Joseph Naderman and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa, also harmony with Victor Dourlen and composition with François-Adrien Boieldieu. In 1823, after having won the Prix de Rome, he travelled to England to give several solo concerts, also including Ireland. This was followed by travels to Switzerland and Italy, before he returned to France in 1831. He tried his hand, with varying degrees of success, in opera and ballet, but his popularity largely stemmed from his romances and melodies rather than from his large-scale works. The main focus of his work were compositions for the harp.
In 1837, he married the singer Algaé Caroline Antoinette Lambert, with whom he regularly performed in England. He was conductor of the Opéra Comique between 1847 and 1849, afterwards "inspecteur accompagnateur" of the Imperial Chapel of Napoléon III, and finally (from 1867), professor of harp at the Conservatoire. His pupils included Joseph-Léon Gatayes and Félix Godefroid. He died in Paris.