Barry Douglas is made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to music and community relations in the 2021 New Year Honours List.
Douglas first captured international attention when he won the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky international Piano Competition in Moscow. In recent seasons Barry performed with a list of orchestras that includes the London Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Russian National, Vancouver Symphony, Oregon Symphony and Halle Orchestras.
In 1999, Douglas founded the chamber orchestra Camerata Ireland to celebrate and nurture the very best of young musicians from both Northern and the Republic of Ireland. In addition to striving for musical excellence, one of the orchestra’s aims is to further the peace process in Ireland by promoting dialogue and collaboration through its musical education programmes. Barry regularly tours with Camerata Ireland throughout the world. Highlights of past seasons were Camerata Ireland’s debut at the BBC Proms in London and a world premiere of a new cantata commissioned by The Honourable The Irish Society, “At Sixes and Sevens”, alongside the London Symphony Orchestra to celebrate Derry-Londonderry becoming City of Culture 2013.
Barry is an exclusive Chandos recording artist. He recently completed recording the full works for solo piano of Brahms, the six albums of which have received much critical praise. International Record Review wrote that “this is indeed Brahms playing of the utmost integrity and authority… this cycle looks set to become a benchmark version.” The interesting programming of each disc presents each album as a stand-alone recital, providing a varied and engaging listening experience. His current recording projects focus on the solo piano works of Schubert and a new project of Tchaikovsky solo piano music. Also with Chandos Barry is exploring Irish folk music through his own arrangements, working with ancient melodies through to pieces by contemporary song writers. The first in this series, Celtic Reflections, was released in September 2014, followed by Celtic Airs in 2016.
