composers

Gerald Barry

• Snow is White

Gerald Barry was born in County Clare in 1952. He studied composition with Stockhausen and Kagel and organ with Piet Kee. Many of his works have been commissioned by the BBC, including Chevaux-de-frise for the 1988 BBC Promenade Concerts, Hard D for Orkest de Volharding and The Conquest of Ireland for the BBC Symphony Orchestra. His opera, The Intelligence Park, commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, was first performed at the 1990 Almeida Festival and a second opera, The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit, was written for Channel 4 Television. In 1997 Hessischer Rundfunk commissioned The Road for the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Gerald Barry's music has been performed at festivals such as the Warsaw Autumn, Musik Trienalle Köln, Musica Viva, Huddersfield and St Denis, and at the ISCM World Music Days. He has worked with Ensemble Modern, Musique Vivant, Speculum Musicae, the New York New Music Ensemble, the Arditti Quartet and the Ives Ensemble.

Recent commissions include one from the BBC for a work for voice and orchestra, Die ewige Wiederkehr, which was first performed by the Ulster Orchestra in June 2000; and from the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group for Wiener Blut, which was premiered at the Aldeburgh Festival in June 2000. His music has been recorded on the NMC, Largo, Black Box, Marco Polo and Challenge labels.

Gerald Barry is a member of Aosd’na, Ireland's state-sponsored academy of creative artists.