Matthew Barley is internationally known as cellist, improviser, arranger, music animateur, and Artistic Director of Between The Notes. His musical world is focused on projects that connect people in different ways, blurring the boundaries that never really existed between genres and people.

As a soloist and chamber musician he has performed in over 50 countries, including appearances with the BBC Scottish and Philharmonic (Hazlewood), the Melbourne Symphony (Tortelier), New Zealand Symphony (Tan Dun), Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Czech Philharmonic, Zagreb Soloists, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National (Alsop), and London Chamber Orchestra. He has performed at festivals in Lucerne, Hong Kong, Lanaudiere, Abu Dhabi, Krakow, City of London and in recent seasons has performed at some of the world’s great concert halls: London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Kumho Hall in Korea, Pablo Casals Hall in Tokyo, The Rudolfinium In Prague, and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires. A key aspect of his recitals is mixing repertoire in unusual ways, pairing Bach suites with jazz, electronica and improvisation and he is particularly interested in music for cello and electronics. Recently he toured Brett Dean’s ballet score One of the Kind (for solo-on-stage-cello and electronics) with the Netherlands Dance Theatre, and recently developed a work with DJ Bee for cello and laptop, both played by Matthew.

Collaboration – whether chamber music or with different styles of music – is an enduring passion, and Matthew has worked with Matthias Goerne, Martin Frost, Viviane Hagner, Thomas Larcher, Kit Armstrong, Amjad Ali Khan, Julian Joseph, Django Bates, Talvin Singh, Jon Lord, Sultan Khan, Kathryn Tickell and Nitin Sawhney. Another passion is improvisation: he recently appeared at the Wigmore’s prestigious BBC Radio 3 lunchtime series in a programme of Bach preludes, interspersed with improvisations on his electric cello.

In 1997 Matthew Barley founded Between The Notes, a performance and education group that has appeared at the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Opera House (with the Royal Ballet) and the International Symposium of Contemporary Music in Hong Kong. In 2005 the group took the lead role in a devised work, Invisible Lines, which culminated in a live-television performance at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms, alongside players from the BBC Symphony Orchestra. More recently BTN took centre stage for the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Köln Philharmonie as soloists with the Gürzenich Orchestra under Markus Stenz.

Future plans include orchestral projects with the Netherlands Radio Chamber Orchestra, The Metropole Jazz Orchestra and a return trip to the Hong Kong Sinfonietta, a residency at the prestigious new venue Kings Place in London, and a major new project with his wife, Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova. He will be artist in residence at the Spitalfields Festival in 2011.

2007 saw Matthew’s debut on television as the Music Director of BBC 2’s widely acclaimed ‘Classical Star’.

Constant Filter is Matthew’s second release for Signum Records, following The Dance of The Three Legged Elephants, which garnered a 5 Star review from BBC Music Magazine.

As a soloist and chamber musician he has performed in over 50 countries, including appearances with the BBC Scottish and Philharmonic (Hazlewood), the New Zealand Symphony (Tan Dun), Melbourne Symphony (Tortelier), Lanaudiere Festival Orchestra in Canada, Hong Kong Sinfonietta, Czech Philharmonic, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Scottish National (Alsop). He has given premieres of works by Detlev Glanert, Fraser Trainer, Peter Wiegold, Dave Maric, John Woolrich, Dmitri Smirnov and Deirdre Gribben, and in recent seasons has performed at some of the world’s great concert halls: London’s Wigmore Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Royal Albert Hall, Kumho Hall in Korea, Pablo Casals Hall in Tokyo, The Rudolfinium in Prague, and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

A key aspect of his recitals is mixing repertoire in unusual ways, pairing Bach suites with jazz, electronica and improvisation and he is particularly interested in music for cello and electronics. Recently he toured Brett Dean’s ballet score One of the Kind (for solo-on-stage-cello and electronics) with the Netherlands Dance Theatre, and recently developed a work with DJ Bee for cello and laptop, both played by Matthew.

Collaboration is an enduring passion (Matthew has worked with the Indian sarod master Amjad Ali Khan, Django Bates, Talvin Singh, Jon Lord and Sultan Khan), as is improvisation: he recently appeared at the Wigmore’s prestigious BBC Radio 3 lunchtime series in a programme of Bach, with improvisations on his electric cello.

In 1997 Matthew Barley founded ‘Between The Notes’, a performance and education group that has appeared at the Sydney Opera House, the Royal Opera House (with the Royal Ballet) and the International Symposium of Contemporary Music in Hong Kong. In 1995 the group took the lead role in a devised work, Invisible Lines, which culminated in a live-television performance at the Royal Albert Hall for the BBC Proms, alongside players from the BBC Symphony Orchestra and 40 teenagers from around the country. More recently BTN took centre stage for the 20th anniversary celebrations of the Köln Philharmonie as soloists with the Gürzenich Orchestra under Markus Stenz.

Future plans include a residency at the prestigious new venue Kings Place in London and a major new project with his wife, Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova. He is also launching the Matthew Barley Ensemble in late 2009, and will be artist in residence at the Spitalfields Festival in 2011.

Future collaborations include projects with Matthias Goerne, Martin Frost, Viviane Hagner, Thomas Larcher and Kit Armstrong, Iranian Sufi Davod Azad, and iconic Indian composer/performer Nitin Sawhney.

2007 saw Matthew’s debut on television as the Music Director of BBC 2’s widely acclaimed ‘Classical Star’.

www.matthewbarley.com