Since his début in London at the Royal Festival Hall in 1979, Graham Barber has been recognised as one of the world’s leading concert organists. He has given concerts in major venues in Britain, Europe, the Far East, the United States and Australia, and has been widely broadcast. Recent concerts have been in Prague, Leipzig, Braga, Lisbon, Coimbra, Adelaide, Werne and Himmerod. Reviewing his first recording in 1975, the Sunday Times described him as a ‘technically brilliant, musically mature organist.’ He has made CDs on many English, German and Dutch organs and has been described in Gramophone magazine as ‘one of the organ world’s finest recording artists.’
Emeritus Professor at the University of Leeds since 2009 and sometime Visiting Tutor in Organ Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, Graham Barber is a freelance concert organist and keyboard player and Organist at St. Bartholomew’s Church, Armley where he is custodian of the celebrated Schulze organ. He has given masterclasses at conservatories in Weimar, Enschede, Braga, Lisbon, Hong Kong and Cologne. In October 2004 he was Distinguished Academic Visitor at the University of Adelaide. In 2006 he was the recipient of a prestigious NESTA Fellowship from the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.
Graham Barber has commissioned new works from Geoffrey Poole, Philip Wilby, Francis Jackson and Wolfgang Stockmeier. On Monday 26 May, 2014 he gave the world première of SINDBAD: Fantasy on Omani popular songs, by Naji Hakim.
Graham Barber has performed in concert with many of the world’s leading conductors including Sir Edward Downes, Sir Charles Groves, Richard Hickox, Sir Charles Mackerras, Sir Georg Solti, Jan Pascal Tortelier and Sir David Willcocks. In 2016 he embarked on a cycle of performances of the complete organ works of Max Reger around the world, alongside works by J.S.Bach.
