Academy Music Director – Matthew Barley
Cellist Matthew Barley trained at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Moscow Conservatoire, and his activities in performance, improvisation, cross-disciplinary projects, composition and pioneering community programmes soon developed to form a unique international career.

Matthew’s musical world has virtually no geographical, social or stylistic boundaries and he lives and breathes music education, making him the ideal choice as Music Director for the academy.

Matthew is a top soloist who has performed with some of the world’s biggest orchestras on some of the world’s greatest stages. His passion for new music has led him to première works, many of them his commissions, and many non-classical collaborations with artists including Django Bates and Julian Joseph.

Matthew has frequently worked with the BBC Proms, and has led major projects all around the world with enormous success – working very closely with the British Council.

In 1997, Matthew founded Between The Notes (BTN), a performance and education group which works with music and other arts.

BTN has been involved in major projects at the Sydney Opera House, London’s Royal Opera House (with the Royal Ballet), the International Symposium of Contemporary Music in Hong Kong, and on tour in Bangladesh, Greece, Spain, Germany, Norway, Croatia, Singapore, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Belgium.

In the academy, Matthew will nurture and guide the contestants – spending each day with them as they attend masterclasses and undertake challenges. For Matthew, this role is a natural extension of his life’s work, and is his first role on prime-time television.