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British cellist
Matthew Barley has an unusually varied set of specialties that includes traditional repertory, Russian music, and contemporary music, both acoustic and eletronic. Exceptionally among classical musicians, he has also experimented with improvisation.
Barley was born May 2, 1965, in London. He attended the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and then went on to the Moscow Conservatory. He has continued to cultivate a strong interest in Russian music, and his London concerto debut came in a
Shostakovich cello concerto with the
London Symphony Orchestra. Another outcome of
Barley's time in Russian was his marriage to Russian violinist
Viktoria Mullova; the pair have three children and have performed together in a genre-crossing program called
The Peasant Girl.
Barley has performed with top orchestras in Britain and beyond, including the
Czech Philharmonic, the
Netherlands Radio Symphony, and the
New Zealand Symphony, appearing in, among other major venues, Wigmore Hall in London, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and Kumho Hall in Seoul.
Barley has been a favorite at music festivals, including one in Abu Dhabi. In 2007,
Barley served as presenter and music director for the Classical Star series on the BBC2 television network. In recital he has collaborated with a large variety of instrumentalists and singers, including baritone
Matthias Goerne, clarinetist
Martin Fröst, and duo pianists
Katia and Marielle Labèque. He has also worked with artists from outside the classical sphere, including keyboardist
Jon Lord of the rock band
Deep Purple, Israeli mandolinist
Avi Avital, and jazz pianist Nikki Yeoh. The breadth of those collaborations is indicative of the increasingly experimental path
Barley's career has taken in later years.
Barley has recorded for Quartz, Avie, and Signum Classics among other labels. On Signum, in 2019, he played cello and conducted the
Sinfonietta Riga in
John Tavener's The Protecting Veil.