Matthew Barley

In 2013 Barley toured the UK to celebrate the centenary of Benjamin Britten’s birth, performing 100 concerts and workshops throughout the year.

In 2007, Barley was the music director and presenter of the BBC2 Classical Star series.

In 2005 he toured Brett Dean's ballet score One of the Kind (for solo-on-stage-cello and electronics) with the Netherlands Dans Theatre; in 2010 with the Basel Ballet and in 2012 with Lyon Ballet.

Matthew Barley was born in London and trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London and the Moscow Conservatoire. He made his London concerto debut playing the Shostakovich cello concerto in the Barbican Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra, as finalist of the LSO-Shell competition. His first CD, in 2003, was The Silver Swan for Black Box was a compilation of pieces for multitracked cellos, all of which he recorded himself using pioneering techniques of layering voices without an electronic click. His next CD, Reminding, featured Soviet music for cello and piano, and was released on Quartz in September 2005.

In 1997 Barley founded Between the Notes, a performance and education group who work with music and other arts.

Matthew Barley (born 2 May 1965) is an English cellist. He is best known for his performances of core classical music, improvisation, and contemporary music including electronics.