Barry Douglas (musician)

William Barry Douglas,OBE (born 23 April 1960) in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is a classical pianist and conductor.

He studied piano, cello, clarinet and organ while growing up in Belfast. He first studied in Belfast while attending Methodist College Belfast and, at 16, had lessons with Felicitas LeWinter, a pupil of Emil von Sauer and grand-pupil of Franz Liszt. In London he studied with John Barstow for four years and then studied privately with Maria Curcio, the last and favourite pupil of Artur Schnabel, going on to study with the Russian pianist Yevgeny Malinin in Paris. He won the Bronze Medal at the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Texas in 1985 and the top prize in the Santander Paloma O'Shea International Piano Competition in Spain. He won the gold medal outright in the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 1986, the first non-Russian pianist to do so since Van Cliburn in 1958.

His debut album was a recording of Modest Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. He has made many recordings since then and has recently (2007) completed (with Camerata Ireland) recording the five Beethoven piano concertos and the Triple Concerto (with Kim Chee-yun and Andrés Díaz (cellist)). He is Artistic Director of the International Piano Festival in Manchester, England and the Clandeboye Festival in Clandeboye, Bangor, County Down. He founded Camerata Ireland in 1998 which has Elizabeth II and Mary McAleese (the then President of Ireland) as Joint Patrons.