Gerald Barry

Gerald Barry was born in Clare in Ireland in 1952 and studied in Amsterdam and Cologne with Peter Schat, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mauricio Kagel, among others. He came to prominence in 1979 with works including ‘________’ and Ø. He has since received commissions from the BBC Proms (Chevaux-de-frise), BBC Symphony Orchestra (The Conquest of Ireland, Day, Wiener Blut), Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (Dead March and Beethoven), London Sinfonietta (God Save the Queen and Feldman’s Sixpenny Editions), De Volharding Piano Quartet (Hard D), Ensemble 7Bridges (No People) and Bayerischer Rundfunk/Musica Viva and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (his Piano Concerto, written for Nicolas Hodges), among others.

His first opera The Intelligence Park was commissioned by the ICA and first performed in 1990 at the Aldeburgh Festival. It was followed by The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit (2002, Channel 4 Television and Aldeburgh Festival), The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (2005, English National Opera), La Plus Forte (2007, Radio France), The Importance of Being Earnest, winner of the 2013 Royal Philharmonic Society Award for Large-Scale Composition, and Alice’s Adventures Under Ground (2016, Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Gustavo Dudamel, the Barbican Centre and Britten Sinfonia).

Barry’s music has been recorded by ensembles including RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra, the Nash Ensemble, BCMG, the Almeida Ensemble, the Irish Chamber Orchestra and the Composers Ensemble, for NMC, Black Box Music, Metronome Records and Discovery Recordings.