Juan Ullibarri studied clarinet and txistu (Basque galoubet) in the Conservatorio de Música de San Sebastian. He was a long time member of the city’s Banda municipal de Txistularis and teacher at the Conservatorios of San Sebastian and of Pamplona. He studied the cornetto with William Dongois, and later, the natural trumpet at the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis. Afterwards he also specialized in historical clarinets with Toni Salar Verdú. At the same time, he plays various Renaissance instruments, like the bagpipes and the albogue, as well as world music instruments such as the duduk (featured in a recording for Michelangelo Falvetti’s Oratorium Nabucco with Capella Mediterranea) and zurna (featured in the première of Kerry Turner’s The Celestials of Sago Lane)
In the early music and symphonic music scene, Juan has played, among others, with the Freiburger Barockorchester, La Chambre Philharmonique, Le Concert Spirituel, Opus 55, Ensemble Matheus, Concerto Köln and Lautten Compagney. He is regularly invited to perform with ensembles like the Wrocław Baroque Orchestra, Capella Mediterranea, Le Tendre Amour and Glossarium. With his ensemble Daksak, he also performs folk music of Basque and Andalusian melodies and rhythms.
Some examples of the different instruments and music he plays are given below:
Dario Castello’s Sonata Terza (cornetto), with the ensemble L‘Armonia degli Affetti:
Philippe van Wichel's Sonata Quarta, with Alessandro Urbano at the Balthasar König's organ in St. Leodegar (Niederehe)
Joseph Pranzer’s first clarinet duo, with Álvaro Iborra (classical 5-keyed clarinets by Agnès Gueroult):
Diferencias sobre la gaita (Albogue) - A Saarländischer Rundfunk (SR) radio production: recording of Quatricinia's concert for the TAMIS festival 2019. With the kind support of the SR:
