Barry Lieberman
Double Bass
University of Washington
Barry Lieberman is now in his sixteenth year as double bass faculty at the University of Washington, Seattle. He began his career at age twenty-one as principal bass of the Winnipeg Symphony. In 1976 Zubin Mehta appointed him associate principal bass of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, a post he held for sixteen years.
Mr. Lieberman has been a regular performer with Chamber Music Northwest, Music from Angel Fire, the International Festival in Seattle, Bravo Colorado, Bargemusic, the Seattle Chamber Music Festival, and Mostly Mozart; and he served as Principal Bass of the Colorado Music Festival in Boulder. He has performed with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, both in New York City and on tour in Europe and with the Mostly Mozart chamber orchestra in the Far East, Europe, and the U.S.
Additionally, Mr. Lieberman has performed with many of the world's greatest conductors, including Pierre Boulez and Sir Simon Rattle (both in orchestral and chamber music settings), Erich Leinsdorf, Leonard Bernstein, Daniel Barenboim, Georg Solti, Eugene Ormandy, Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, and Kurt Sanderling.
He has performed chamber music with artists including Emmanuel Ax, James Galway, Lynn Harrell, Pinchas Zuckerman, Glenn Dicterow, and David Shifrin.
A member of the New European Strings for several years, Mr. Lieberman toured both the US and Europe with its leader, Dimirtri Sitkovetsky. He has also served as principal bass of the Seattle Symphony on many occasions.
In l994, Mr. Lieberman created the series "Barry Lieberman and Friends" at the University of Washington. The series combines the talents of members of the Seattle Symphony, the University, guest artists, and students from both the University and its preparatory level. "BL and Friends" has met with great success and is one of the most popular concert series in Seattle.
2000-2001 marked Mr. Lieberman's debut with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York City. His recording of the complete Vivaldi sonatas arranged for the double bass and piano was released in 2001 and is the first and only recording of all ten of these sonatas. They were performed on Mr. Lieberman's 1597 Maggini double bass, one of the oldest in the world.
In May 2002 Mr. Lieberman launched The American String Project, bringing together fifteen of the world's greatest string players to form the first conductorless string orchestra. The three performances that year met with intense critical acclaim, with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer proclaiming the Project the "best musical event" of 2002. Superlative artistic achievement and critical kudos have been the norm in all subsequent seasons.
In the fall of 2003, Mr. Lieberman conducted several master classes at the Guildhall School of Music in London, England, the equivalent of the Juilliard School in America. In the summer of 2004 he was invited to become a member of the faculty of the Roundtop Music Festival in Texas, one of the country's most respected summer music programs.
Mr. Lieberman is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and the Cleveland Institute of Music. He and his wife, Maria Larionoff, live in Seattle with their two golden retrievers, Randolph and Mia.
"A consummate chamber player" Seattle Weekly
"Sophisticated and elegant" Los Angeles Times
"A sensitive, persuasive, and technically assured artist" Double Bassist Magazine
