10 Facts About Barry Guy

Barry Guy studied at the Guildhall School of Music under Buxton Orr, and later taught there.

Barry Guy became an occasional member of John Stevens' ensembles in the 1960s and 1970s, including the Spontaneous Music Ensemble.

Barry Guy formed a long-standing partnership with saxophonist Evan Parker, which led to a trio with drummer Paul Lytton which became one of the best-known and most widely travelled free-improvising groups of the 1980s and 1990s.

Barry Guy was briefly a member of the Michael Nyman Band in the 1980s, performing on the soundtrack of The Draughtsman's Contract.

Barry Guy has written for other large improvising ensembles, such as the NOW Orchestra and ROVA.

Barry Guy's current improvising activities include piano trios with Marilyn Crispell and Agusti Fernandez.

Barry Guy has recorded several albums for ECM, which often focus on the interface between improvisers and electronics, including his work in Evan Parker's Electro-Acoustic Ensemble and his own Ceremony.

In 2016, Barry Guy was appointed Honorary Professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he periodically conducts workshops and master classes.

Barry Guy's improvisations are often percussive and unpredictable, inhabiting no discernible harmonic territory and pushing into unknown regions.

Similarly, in his concert works, Barry Guy manages to alternate harmonic and rhythmic complexity worthy of 1960s experimentalists such as Penderecki and Stockhausen with joyous, often ecstatic, melody.