Richard Barrett (composer)

Richard Barrett ( born November 7, 1959 in Swansea, Wales ) is a British composer.

Barrett only began to seriously study music after he had in 1980 at University College London holds a degree in genetics and microbiology ( Warnaby 2001). Of Iannis Xenakis, Helmut Lachenmann and Hans -Joachim Hesp affected ( Anderson 1997, 55; Freeman 1994, 42-43 ), it is attributed to the British composers of the so-called New Complexity.

Barrett's compositions are often grouped into series of works and refer to non-musical influences, especially the writer Samuel Beckett and Paul Celan or the Chilean painter Roberto Matta. Barrett composition technique often used higher mathematics, which is why he often to the aid of a computer accesses ( Warnaby 2001) while composing.

1989-92 he taught composition at Middlesex University. He was appointed professor of composition at the Electronic Sonologieinstitut the Royal Conservatory in The Hague, where he taught for six years in 1996. 2002-2006 he lived in Berlin, and has since 2005 a professor at the Faculty of Music at Brunel University in London held ( Brunel University webpage ).

Barrett is the recipient of Kranichsteiner Music Prize 1986 of the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt and received in 1989 the composition prize of the Gaudeamus Foundation.