Finbar Hosie

electronics and artistic associate

Finbar  (b. 1996, Salisbury) is a Franco-British composer based in Strasbourg, France. His music explores a radically phenomenological approach to sound and the concert experience. Oscillating between fragility and visceral intensity, his music blurs the boundaries between the electronic and the acoustic. Narrative, poetics, and a strong sense of social and political questioning permeate Finbar's work. Through striking recontextualisations of literature and text, as well as the incorporation of video and pop-cultural references, his music embraces radicality and pathos. It is anchored in the present, often evoking a deep sense of absurdity on stage and beyond. As such, Finbar strives for a universal and inclusive New Music, resisting the binarities of contemporary life and the isolationism often present in the scene, offering a multiplicity of view points for all audiences.

Alongside a maximalist reflection of contemporary culture and experience, Finbar’s output also draws from his longstanding interest in the hybridisation of contemporary composition, traditional folk music, and electronica. An influence rooted in the folk heritage that marked the beginning of his musical life, which as come to heavily inform his work in the lineage of long-standing Folk traditions of narration and story telling.

Finbar’s works have been programmed at festivals and institutions such as Gaudeamus, ZKM Karlsruhe, Unerhörte Musik Berlin, Dublin Sound Lab, Constellation Chicago, Kunstraum Walcheturm Zurich, Neubad Lucerne, and Impuls Graz, among others. He has received commissions supported by bodies including the French Ministry of Culture, Sacem, and Diaphonique, and was a 2023 laureate of the Diaphonique New Music Fund. Since 2022, he has been a core member of the Strasbourg-based collective lovemusic, since then he has held key responsibilities across production, technical and administrative functions in the collective, in addition to his work interpreting electronics when performing with the collective. He is currently appointed as Artistic Associate and sound director. In May 2025, collective lovemusic was presented with the prestigious Ernst von Siemens Ensemble Prize at an award ceremony in Munich.

Central to his practice is a mutualist relationship with performers: a sustained investigation of the instrument both as a material sound-object and as a corporeal extension. Drawing from historical practices, he advocates for experimentation, collaboration, and close reciprocity throughout the compositional process. The result is a music of physical tension, poised at the limits of mechanical precision and the perceived imperfections of the organic or human.

Finbar holds a Master’s degree from the Strasbourg Conservatoire and the Académie Supérieure de Musique de Strasbourg (HEAR) and the University of Strasbourg. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree from Brunel University London, where he received the Steve Thomas Memorial Prize for Composition upon graduation