Matthew Barley

First time in Latvia

Matthew Barley — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:44:26 +0000

I’m enjoying my first trip to Latvia, playing two concerts at the Introvert Music Festival. Last night I played a concert featuring only slow music! by Bach, Metcalfe, Schumann, Part, Rachmaninov and improvisations, to an audience that appeared not to get at all bored. Tomorrow night I will play a concert starting at 11pm, and I’ll play all through the night - mostly improvisations on acoustic and electric cellos - before being joined by Sanju Sahai, table player, at 7am to finish off the performance prior to a very large breakfast. The audience will bring sleeping bags and cushions, and will stretch out on the floor of the hall in the amazing 18th Century Vecgulbenes Manor House. It’s something new for me…watch this space for a write up soon…

Back at the Bimhuis…

Matthew Barley — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 23:19:34 +0000

Very nice to be back at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam for a night with the Metropole Strings. As the world’s foremost jazz orchestra it was always going to be an exciting week, but it did surpass expectations, as in the concert (some arrangements for cello and strings, some impro, and some devised w0rk), they REALLY went for it! It was absolutely wonderful to be a part of, as the energy was exceptional - they were so open and generous with their musicality on stage. The (small but perfectly formed) audience responded well, and seemed to totally get the quality of what they were doing which was great. So that’s 2 fantastic nights at the Bimhuis in one month - I love playing there!

Extreme Cellists!!!

Matthew Barley — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:07:55 +0000

I’ve just heard about an incredible venture that 3 mad English cellists are undertaking: they will walk 192 miles from coast to coast, with cellos on their backs, to raise money for some great charities. Please check it out - Extreme Cellists - and please donate and tell your friends! It’s brilliant! And good luck to the guys - I hope the weather is great, and that your cello case straps are strong…

A great week in Hong Kong

Matthew Barley — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 10:08:56 +0000

it’s been a very satisfying week in HK, and actually felt like a mini-festival, with 3 programmes and 5 concerts in 6 days. The orchestra were wonderful, and made a fantastic progression with their improvising during the week - the concert today was their best one, and really sounded great: confident, inventive and with substance. Today was a concert for families, and it was standing room only as hundreds of people braved the torrential rain to come and listen to Piazzolla, Schumann, improvisations and Tchaikovsky. Back home for a day, then off to Holland to work with the legendary Metropole jazz orchestra….hmm, need to finish the last Coltrane arrangement on the plane…

Hong Kong

Matthew Barley — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 03:14:23 +0000

Great to back in Hong Kong - it’s been a few years, and it’s such an exciting city. My hotel room is on the 29th floor looking out over the bay and the view is just fantastic…great hotel - there’s even a slot for my iphone to play music in the room.

The Hong Kong Sinfonietta are feeling adventurous this week, so they’ve invited me to play with them as a soloist, conduct them in Tchaikovsky, and teach them to improvise as an orchestra which we will be doing in a couple of the concerts this week. I’m also playing a concert where the audience will bring yoga mats and stretch away as I play. I like Hong Kong.

New CD released

Matthew Barley — Sun, 16 May 2010 11:24:23 +0000

Constant Filter, my new CD of all John Metcalfe’s music, is now available on Signum Records on their website where you can also listen to some clips, or on Amazon.

Listen to a 9′ podcast about the disc here: cf-introduction

The official launch was on Friday at Kings Place where I played much of the material for the first time live. It was one of the hardest concerts I’ve ever done. There was so much to do: playing the electric cello, dealing with the footpedals, trying to figure out the sound through the monitoring system (what was me, what was the computer effects? What do I adjust if it’s out of tune???), allowing for capricious computer technology that seemed to change so many things from the soundcheck to the show…but it was very exciting to be playing it live, and I can’t wait for other performances coming up of Metcalfe in Latvia, Hong Kong, and several back in the UK. With a good sound system like they have at Kings Place, it’s really a magical sound world.

And a highlight of the week for me was playing with John’s band on Thursday - they are just totally brilliant, and it was a deep joy and honour. To cap the week, last night we had a very memorable evening with the magnificent young Carducci Quartet who I’m sure of destined for great things - incredible unity of intention and sound.

Article on the Dilettante website

Matthew Barley — Wed, 12 May 2010 07:56:28 +0000

A preview of new CD Constant Filter: click here

Competition for tickets to Kings Place concerts!

Matthew Barley — Tue, 04 May 2010 18:19:39 +0000

There are three concerts next week (May 13, 14, 15) at Kings Place where I will be featuring lots of music by the fantastic composer John Metcalfe. They include collaborations with the John Metcalfe Band, The Carducci Quartet and pianist Ashley Wass. See the links on the concert page for more details.

You can win a pair of tickets to any one of these concerts by answering this simple question: Which major rock star ’s latest CD has John just written all the orchestral arrangements for?

Send the answer to me through the “Contact Me’ link on the left.

The first 10 correct replies will receive a pair of tickets for one of those concerts - please specify which one in your email - and the FIRST CORRECT REPLY will also receive a FREE copy of my new CD, Constant Filter which is being launched at Kings Place next week. Good luck (it’s really not too hard in these days of Google….)

The Group in Abu Dhabi

Matthew Barley — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 12:02:03 +0000

Here’s the group - lovely photo. If you click on it, you will be able to download a bigger version.

Abu Dhabi International

Matthew Barley — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 19:26:21 +0000

Just started a project with Between The Notes and 32 young musicians in Abu Dhabi for the Festival - I think it’s our most international group ever: as well as students from the UAE, we have participants from Portugal, Poland, Syria, Canada/Russia, Philippines, Japan/New Zealand, Germany/Ireland, Indonesia, Jordan, Turkey, Palestine, India, Iran, Iraq, South Korea, Pakistan, Vietnam/Australia, Egypt and the UK! What a fantastic group! We have several Arabic instruments as well as Western orchestral ones and guitars and keyboards, which is fun, and are halfway through the creative process with some exciting new music to perform at the Emirates Palace on Saturday night. Music is certainly being a unifying force for good, bringing together such a group of people from all over the world to create and perform.