‘Each piece by Barry is like a signature in music. It’s utterly personal and instantly recognisable.’
(The Musical Times)

Gerald Barry was born in Ireland in 1952 and after completing studies at University College Dublin went to Amsterdam and later Cologne to continue his studies.  His time in Germany, where he studied with Stockhausen and Kagel proved to be a liberating experience and he soon came to public attention in 1979 with radical ensemble works ‘__________’ and ‘Ø’.

Many of his works have been commissioned by the BBC, including Chevaux-de-frise for the Ulster Orchestra at the 1988 Proms, The Conquest of Ireland and Day for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, The Eternal Recurrence, a setting of Nietzsche for voice and orchestra, and Hard D for the Orkest de Volharding. Chevaux-de-frise was given its Russian première by the Mariinsky Orchestra in 2007.

Barry’s first opera The Intelligence Park (recorded on NMC), commissioned by the ICA, was first performed at the 1990 Almeida Festival, and a second opera, The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit, written for Channel 4 Television, opened the 2002 Aldeburgh Festival, followed by performances in London and the Berliner Festwochen. It received its North American première with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2006, followed by performances in Paris, Amsterdam, and New York in 2007-2008.

In 1997 The Road was written for the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra gave the German première of The Conquest of Ireland in 1998.

Barry has enjoyed a long association with the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, for whom he wrote Wiener Blut, Dead March and Beethoven. Wiener Blut, commissioned by the BCMG for the 2000 Aldeburgh Festival, received its London première at the 2000 BBC Proms, and the work has since received numerous performances both in the UK and abroad. God Save The Queen for choir and the London Sinfonietta was commissioned by London's South Bank Centre for the fiftieth birthday of the Royal Festival Hall in 2001.

Barry’s music has been performed at the Warsaw Autumn, Musik Triennale Köln, Musica Viva, Festival Présences, Huddersfield and St Denis Festivals, the ISCM and many others. His music has been recorded on the NMC, Largo, Black Box, Marco Polo, RTE, and BVHaast labels.

In 2005 the stage première of The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant (recorded on RTE) was given at English National Opera and the German language première was given at the Basle Opera in May 2008. La Plus Forte (The Stronger), a one-act opera on the Strindberg play commissioned by Radio France for the 2007 Festival Présences received its Irish première in June 2008 with the RTE NSO and its American premiere with the New World Symphony Orchestra in Miami in December 2008. The RTE NSO also commissioned his recent orchestral work, No other people.

Future works include Schott and sons, Mainz for bass solo and choir, an account of the relationship between Schott and Beethoven in his last years. This is for the NCO of Ireland, Ars Nova Copenhagen and Coro Casa da Musica Porto to be premiered in October 2010 in Dublin.  This will be followed by Feldmans Six-Penny Editions, for the London Sinfonietta and Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (2011) and an opera, The Importance of Being Earnest, for Los Angeles and London.

Barry is a member of Aosdána, an organisation set up to honour artists who have made a significant contribution to the arts in Ireland. Dead March was nominated for The 2002 Ivors Classical Music Award whilst Lisbon was nominated in the Chamber-scale composition category of the 2008 RPS Awards.