Verena Barié, 1 — 5; Foto von Wei Hung

Verena Barié is a media artist, electronic performer-composer, curator of sound-based arts, and recorder player working at the intersection of music, new media, and art. Barié specializes in live electronic recorder performances, with musical extensions ranging from aquarium hoses to football tables to ceremonial organ installations. She lives and works in Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Amsterdam.

Barié’s practice is based on two core experiences from her youth: an internship in the German Bundestag and her firsthand experience of democratic social formation in 2011. The other, her visits to and participation in the Leipzig Early Music Improvisation Festival LivFe! (now EX TEMPORE, participation in 2011 and 2013), and the development of free musical language as a discursive community-building tool.

Verena Barié is active on the basis of a Masters in Live Electronics and a Bachelor in Recorder at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and is currently studying for her Masters in Klang & Realität / Transmedia Forms in Düsseldorf.

Since 2020, she has been co-curator of LTK4 – Sound-Based Arts Cologne. Here, she is committed to promoting female artists in the fields of audio production, composition, and installation art, among other things. Her project space LTS4 x Licht.Ton.Sicht in the Lichtturm Solingen offers a platform for intergenerational dialogue and interdisciplinary exchange in the Bergisches Land region. From 2021 to 2025, she worked as board member of the Cologne Society for New Music e.V. and acted as spokesperson for New Music in the IFM e.V. and in the Working Group for New Music NRW. Furthermore, from 2022 to 2025, she was an editorial member of the cross-disciplinary magazine NOIES NRW (formerly Karlheinz) and will be invited as a guest moderator of the sound art portrait program funkt.sessions in 2025. Barié is actively involved in shaping cultural life in NRW’s independent scene.

Barié is artistic co-director and producer of the CENTRE COURT FESTIVAL Cologne, juror and producer of CONTAINERKLANG at kgnm from 2022 to 2024, juror at ZAMUS UN:LIMITED in 2024 and concept designer of the Europe-wide project kgnm.remote 2023 as well as the Cologne workshop series on professionalization in mental health kgnm.connect with TGR – The Green Room in 2024.

She has received awards in Amsterdam, including the Gaudeamus Muziekweekprijz (2013) and the Grachtenfestival Amsterdam Prize (2019), and in Rome the Rome Independent Cinema Festival Prize (2018). She holds scholarships from the German Orchestra Foundation (#MusikerZukunft), the Music Fund, the German Music Council, and the Ministry of Culture and Science of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Verena Barié is a member of renowned ensembles such as The Royal Wind Music (Renaissance Double Sextet, Amsterdam), the 1. GERMAN ELECTROPHONIC ORCHESTRA (sound art collective, Cologne), and the award-winning British recorder quartet BLOCK4 (London/Amsterdam). Together with composer and live electronic artist Sjoerd Leijten, she founded the duo chirp.crush in 2017, working at the intersection of experimental radio plays, radio waves, and sound art. Since 2021, she has been working with trumpeter and sound artist Rochus Aust under the name Avatar Curators, focusing on installative and visual music.
She played improvisations with Vladimir Tarasov and Silvia Rossani at the CENTRE COURT FESTIVAL Cologne (2024), with Chhoroll Tsering and Turbo Tsering at SA LADAKH Landart Festival HIMALAYA (2024), with Rochus Aust and Florian Zwissler at NEXT LEVEL FESTIVAL FOR GAMES Essen Zollverein (2022).

These artistic partnerships, as well as her project-based collaborations with international ensembles, provide her with continuous inspiration and creative impulses. Her encounters with artists in masterclasses and festivals, have had a lasting impact. These include composers Chaya Czernowin, Joël Bons, Jorrit Tamminga, and Wim Henderickx; electronic composers and performers such as Marcel Wierckx, Jos Zwaanenburg, Anne La Berge, and Michael Norris; and (classical) musicians such as Walter van Hauwe, Dorothee Oberlinger, Geworg Dabaghjan, and Alistair Faser.