Carles
Cristóbal

Carles Cristóbal (born 1976) comes from near Barcelona and began his bassoon studies with Joseph Borras at the Conservatori Professional de Musica de Badalona. In 2004 he completed a diploma in early music at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis with Claude Wassmer and Donna Agrell.

Since then he has been active as a freelance bassoonist and maintains an intensive collaboration with various ensembles such as the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble (Thomas Hengelbrock), Hesperion XXI and Le Concert de Nations (Jordi Savall), Les Talents Lyriques (Christophe Rousset), Basel Chamber Orchestra, Collegium Vocale Gent (Philippe Herreweghe), Cafe Zimmermann, Freiburg Baroque Orchestra, La Cetra Baroque Orchestra (Andrea Marcon) – to name but a few.

His passion for the entire instrumentarium of the bassoon family, from the early Renaissance to the late Romantic period, makes his repertoire very broad and leads to close cooperation with specialized instrument makers. In addition to his work as a bassoonist, he conducts research in the areas of musical practice, the history of his instrument, and repertoire. At present he is particularly interested in forgotten Spanish cantatas of the 18th century with obbligato bajón (dulcian).

Carles gained his first pedagogical experience as a teacher of historical bassoon at the Aula de Musica Antiga de Girona (2007-2017). In 2018 he became professor of basson ancien at the Haute École de Musique de Genève. In 2021 he took over the professorship for historical bassoon at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis.