Born in Swansea (Wales) in 1959, studied genetics at University College London and composition with Peter WIEGOLD (from 1980 to 1983), subsequently receiving guidance from Brian FERNEYHOUGH and Hans-Joachim HESPOS at the 1984 Darmstadt Summer Courses. His compositions have won the Kranichsteiner Musikpreis (1986) and Gaudeamus Prize (1989). He was on the composition faculty at Darmstadt from 1986 to 1994, and taught composition at Middlesex University in London from 1989 to 1992. He has lived in Amsterdam since 1993 teaching electronic composition and performance in the Institute of Sonology at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. He was co-director (with Roger REDGATE) of Ensemble Exposé from its foundation in 1984 until 1993.
Richard Barrett's compositions have been performed and broadcast worldwide by ensembles such as L'Itinéraire, Ensemble Köln, Ensemble Modern, Arditti String Quartet, Ensemble InterContemporain, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Klangforum Wien. His 1994 work Vanity has been internationally acclaimed as one of the most important orchestral scores of the 1990s. Of central importance is his collaboration with ELISION Ensemble, for whom he has written Another Heavenly Day (1989-90), Negatives (1988-92), Opening of the Mouth (1992-97) and Transmission (1996-99), with future projects including the evening-long DARK MATTER (1990-2000) for ELISION together with the Norwegian ensemble Cikada Ensemble and artist Per Inge BJØRLO. In 1997-98 Richard Barrett was composer-in-residence with the Belgian ensemble Champ d'Action, for whom he wrote the music-theatre work Unter Wasser, on a text by the Austrian writer Margret KREIDL. In 1998 he was a featured composer at the Festival Ars Musica (Brussels) and Gaudeamus (Amsterdam) festivals.
Web: http://elision.org.au/composers/barrett.html