Hailed as “a supremely talented and genuine artist”, Barry Douglas is one of the most versatile and brilliant pianists of today. Active as an orchestral soloist, recitalist, chamber musician, conductor and festival director, his artistry has been acclaimed by critics and audiences worldwide.
Barry Douglas has established a major international career since winning the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, Moscow. He has since appeared as soloist with many of the world’s foremost orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus in Germany, Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles in the US, the NHK and Tokyo Symphonies in Japan, the Israel Philharmonic and all the major London orchestras. He has collaborated with many eminent conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sir Colin Davis, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Yuri Temirkanov, Michael Tilson Thomas and Mariss Jansons.
In 1999, he formed Camerata Ireland, an all-Irish chamber orchestra, with players from both Northern and Southern Ireland to celebrate "the wealth of Irish musical talent" where he remains Artistic Director. He is also the Artistic Director of the International Piano Festival held at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, the Clandeboye International Festival and the Camerata Ireland at Castletown Series Festival in Ireland.
As a soloist, highlights of 2010/11 season include his return to the London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony, Singapore Symphony, Duisburg Philharmonic, RSB Berlin and Ulster Orchestra amongst others. In the summer, he returns to the BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra performing the worldwide premiere of a new concerto written for him in celebration of his 50th birthday by Kevin Volans. Mr. Douglas regularly tours France, Ireland, UK, US and Russia in recital with recent performances in Manchester, Dublin, St. Petersburg and Moscow. This season, he will include Spain and South America with visits to Barcelona and Rio de Janeiro.
In recent seasons, Barry Douglas has given concerts on four continents, including concerto appearances with the Seattle Symphony, Halle, Radio Sinfonie Orchestra, Berlin, Melbourne Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech National Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic, China Philharmonic, Shanghai Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Houston Symphony, Helsinki Philharmonic and Dresden Philharmonic amongst others.
Best known for his performances of the large-scale Romantic works including Brahms, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, Barry Douglas is also a champion of twentieth and twentyfirst century composers such as Reger, Britten, Corigliano and Penderecki. Works premiered by Mr. Douglas include Penderecki’s Piano Concerto Resurrection, which he first performed in Warsaw in 2002 at the behest of the composer. In 2009, he performed with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra in honor of Mr. Penderecki’s 75th birthday.
Sought after as a chamber musician, he has shared the stage with numerous acclaimed artists, such as Cho-Liang Lin, Lynn Harrell, Gary Hoffmann, Andres Diaz and the Tokyo, Ysaye and Guarneri String Quartets.
Mr. Douglas’ reputation as a pianist/conductor has grown since forming Camerata Ireland and this season he will make his debut with the St. Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, and RTE National Symphony Orchestra in their main subscription series and will return again in the spring. In recent seasons, he has made successful debuts with the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Indianapolis Symphony, Vancouver Symphony, and Chamber Orchestra of the Romanian National Radio Orchestra at the Enescu Festival, Bangkok Symphony, I Pommerigi di Milano and Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra.
Each season, Camerata Ireland promotes their International Series with concerts in Dublin, London and Paris and in 2010/11 they will extend this to Madrid as part of a tour in Spain. The orchestra regularly visits the US on tour and this season they return with concerts in New York, Nashville, Chicago and Florida. They are the resident ensemble at the Clandeboye Festival and at Castletown Concerts in Ireland.
In 2007, Barry Douglas presented his first television series for RTE Ireland “Symphony Sessions” – a program showing behind the scenes of orchestral life. He conducted and played with the RTE National Orchestra and returned in 2008 for another series in this role. Last season he presented a series for BBC Northern Ireland which showed the development of young Irish musicians.
Barry Douglas has recorded extensively throughout his career and has recorded all the Beethoven Concertos with Camerata Ireland. His growing discography includes works of Beethoven, Brahms, Britten, Corigliano, Debussy, Liszt, Penderecki, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Reger and Tchaikovsky. In 2008; Sony/BMG released his recording of Rachmaninov 1 and 3 with the Russian National Orchestra and Svetlanov which was immediately hailed by Classical Source as an "unmissable release". His BMG recording of the Reger Concerto and Strauss Burleske with Marek Janowski and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France was awarded the Diapson d’Or. Current recording projects are the Penderecki Piano Concerto with Warsaw Philharmonic and Maestro Antoni Wit for the Naxos label and Nina Rota's Concerto Soirée Per Pianoforte e Orchestra with the Filarmonica 900 del Teatro Regio and Maestro Gianandrea Noseda for the Chandos label. Future recording plans with Chandos include the complete piano works of Brahms and Schubert.
Barry Douglas received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year’s Honours List for services to music. Prior to winning the Gold Medal in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition, where Mr. Douglas had the distinction of being the only non- Russian since Van Cliburn in 1958 to have won the award outright, he was awarded the Bronze Medal at the Van Cliburn Competition in 1985 and the top prize in the Santander Paloma O’Shea Competition in Spain. He is also the recipient of an Emmy award. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Music where he is Prince Consort Professor of Piano and received honorary Doctorates from Queens University in Belfast, the National University of Ireland in Maynooth outside Dublin and the University of Wyoming.
A native of Ireland, Barry Douglas studied at the Belfast School of Music. Mr. Douglas began conducting at an early age. At the age of 16 he began piano lessons with Felicitas LeWinter, who inspired him to become a pianist. He was awarded a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where he studied with John Barstow, and later studied privately with Maria Curcio and Yvegeny Malinin.
Barry Douglas makes his home in Paris, France and Lurgan, Ireland, where he lives with his wife and three children.
For more information on Barry Douglas, please visit www.barry-douglas.com.
Last updated September 2010. Contact Opus 3 Artists for the most up-to-date version.
