Barry Douglas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
Barry Douglas (born April 23, 1960 in Belfast) is an Irish classical pianist.
He studied piano, cello, clarinet and organ whilst growing up in Belfast. Barry Douglas first studied in Belfast and at 16 had lessons with Felicitas LeWinter, a pupil of Emil von Sauer - a pupil of Liszt. In London he studied with John Barstow for four years and then studied privately with Maria Curcio, herself a pupil of Austrian pianist Arthur Schnabel, going on to study with the Russian pianist Yevgeny Malinin in Paris.
He won the gold medal, outright in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1986, the first non-Russian pianist to do so since Van Cliburn in 1958. Barry Douglas received the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year's Honours List for services to music. He also received a Fellowship of the Royal College of Music where he is Prince Consort Professor of Piano and an Hon. Doctorate of Music from Queens University Belfast. He is Visiting Prince Consort professor of Piano at the Royal College of Music. He received an honorary Doctorate of Music from the National University of Ireland in September 2007.
His debut album was a recording of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, in the original piano version. He has made many recordings since then and has recently (2007) completed (with Camerata Ireland) recording the five Beethoven piano concertos plus Beethoven's Triple Concerto (with Chee-Yun Kim and Andrés Díaz). He is Artistic Director of the International Piano Festival in Manchester, England and the Clandeboye Festival in Clandeboye, Bangor, County Down. He founded Camerata Ireland in 1998 which has Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Mary McAleese the President of Ireland as Joint Patrons.
He had previously won the Bronze Medal at the Van Cliburn Competition in Texas in 1985 and the top prize in the Santander Paloma O'Shea competition in Spain.
Barry Douglas increasingly devotes part of his time to conducting the Camerata Ireland orchestra. He has directed cycles of the complete Beethoven symphonies (in November 2002) and Mozart and Schubert symphonies and Mozart concertos in 2000 and 2001. He has recorded on the RCA and Satirino France labels.
He is married with 3 children. He shares his time between Paris and Lurgan.
