DrSteve Barry

PhD MBA FHEA GradCertCISI GradCertEdStud BMus(Hons)

Dr Steve Barry is a multi-award winning pianist, Hammond organist, composer and improviser, and the Program Leader for Jazz at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Born & raised in Tamaki Makaurau Auckland and now for many years living and creating on Gadigal land, Barry works across the music industry as a performer, accompanist, educator and consultant.

Barry's creative output moves fluidly across the jazz, contemporary classical and improvised music worlds. His 2023 release In The Waves - featuring drummer Eric Harland and saxophonist Will Vinson (USA) - received 4.5 stars in the Weekend Australian and was described by the Sydney Morning Herald as "...the finest installment yet of the pianist's bristling musical intelligence, rhythmic mutability, melodic flair and compositional gifts." Current projects include an edited book on Australasian jazz education, practice and industry, and bodies of work for quartet, solo piano, Hammond organ, and a 10-piece cross-genre ensemble.

Barry has worked extensively in Japan for over a decade, performing and recording with bassist Yoshio Suzuki - nephew of acclaimed educator Shinichi Suzuki and former member of Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. A 2017 grant from the Australia Council for the Arts supported a week-long residency and immersive audio-video recording in the Joganji Buddhist temple in Osaka, in a pioneering collaboration with the renowned koto player and experimental improviser Michiyo Yagi and an ensemble of Australian and Japanese musicians, under the moniker Orbiturtle.

In recent years Barry's work has extended to Vietnam, leading an ensemble of Conservatorium jazz students on a week-long residency at the Vietnam National Academy of Music and and performance tour of Hanoi in 2022 and 2023. In 2023, the visit culminated in a sold-out collaborative performance in the 800-seat Grand Concert Hall at the Academy, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Australia-Vietnam diplomatic relations and the 10th anniversary of the Academy's jazz department, and broadcast on Vietnam's largest TV network, VTV1.

Barry's 2018 release Blueprints & Vignettes received a 4-star review in the Sydney Morning Herald and was long-listed for the 14th annual Australian Music Prize. His 2018 album of compostions and improvisations for solo piano, Hatch, reached #9 on the Radio New Zealand Classical Music charts.

Barry has performed and recorded with Eric Harland, Will Vinson, Jay Rodriguez, Arun Luthra, Mimi Jones, Camille Thurman, John Hollenbeck, Theo Bleckmann, George Coleman Jr. (USA) and a long list of leading Australasian improviers, including Judy Bailey, Sean Wayland, Dale Barlow, Andrew Gander and Jamie Oehlers.

As a chamber composer Barry's works have been premiered by Ensemble Offspring and pianists Daniel Rojas, Natalia Ricci and Stephanie McCallum.