Barry Douglas

Barry talks about how he became a pianist . . . 

Since he won the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow, Irish pianist Barry Douglas has enjoyed a major international career.  With homes in Paris and Lurgan, Barry is married with three young children.

He founded Camerata Ireland, an all-Irish chamber orchestra with players from both Northern and Southern Ireland to celebrate, in his own words, "the wealth of Irish musical talent".  As an increasingly in-demand conductor, Barry has undertaken a complete Beethoven Symphony cycle at the National Concert Hall in Dublin with the Orchestra of St Cecilia. 

The orchestras with which he has worked include the Berlin Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus in Germany, the orchestras of Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles in the United States, NHK and Tokyo Symphonies in Japan, the Israel Philharmonic and all the major London orchestras.  He has collaborated with many eminent conductors including Ashkenazy, Davis, Jansons, Masur, Maazel, Slatkin, Temirkanov, Dutoit and Tilson Thomas.

He has recorded extensively over the years, including the Beethoven Concertos with Camerata Ireland.   His recording of  the Reger Concerto coupled with the Strauss Burleske with Marek Janowski and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France  for BMG was awarded the Diapason d'Or.

Barry's orchestra Camerata Ireland is the only all-Irish arts organisation to have joint patronage from HM The Queen and the President of Ireland.  2001 saw the orchestra give a gala concert for President Bill Clinton at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, which was the subject of a Landseer Productions television documentary.  Barry Douglas received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year's Honours List for services to music.

Find out more about Barry at http://www.barry-douglas.com/ and about Camerata Ireland at http://www.camerata-ireland.com/