Barry Douglas enjoys a major international career, which has developed worldwide since he won the Gold Medal at the 1986 Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow. The orchestras with whom Barry Douglas has worked include Berlin Philharmonic and Leipzig Gewandhaus in Germany, the orchestras of Philadelphia, Chicago, Cleveland and Los Angeles in the United States, both NHK and Tokyo Symphonies in Japan, Israel Philharmonic and all the major London orchestras. The many eminent conductors with whom he has collaborated include Ashkenazy, Sir Colin Davis, Masur, Maazel, Slatkin, Tilson Thomas, Temirkanov and Jansons.
Barry Douglas is particularly known for his performances of the large-scale Romantic repertoire including Brahms, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky and he also excels in less familiar concerti such as those by Reger, Britten and Corigliano. These last three works he has recorded for BMG/RCA; the Reger Concerto coupled with the Strauss Burlesque, with Marek Janowski and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, was awarded the Diapason d’Or.
Last season Mr Douglas performed in London at the Royal Festival Hall with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and at the Barbican with the National Youth Orchestra, and other engagements included the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in Paris, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and BBC National Orchestra of Wales, a Far East tour, and a United States tour with the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and Charles Dutoit.
Current engagements include the opening concert of the Hallé Orchestra’s season with Paavo Berglund, Orchestre National de France with Leonard Slatkin (Gershwin), La Fenice Orchestra with Yuri Temirkanov (Mozart), Liverpool Philharmonic (Beethoven), Finnish Radio Symphony, and the opening concert of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra’s season with Marek Janowski in which he performs all three concerti by Bartók, performance an exciting new venture for Barry Douglas is Camerata Ireland, an all-Irish chamber orchestra which he founded with players from both Northern and Southern Ireland. This year saw the orchestra give a gala concert for President Bill Clinton at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast, which was filmed for television. As Music Director of the orchestra, Douglas will be directing / playing performances this season with the orchestra in North America, South America and in Europe. Mr Douglas will also conduct several concerts with Orchestra of St Cecilia in Dublin, including two Schubert Symphonies and the complete Beethoven Symphonies.