Barry Douglas

An internationally renowned musician and conductor, Barry was born in 1960 in Belfast, where he attended Methodist College. He first studied music in his native city. Among his many awards he became the first non-Russian for many years to win a gold medal at the prestigious Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow in 1986. Barry has performed with every major international orchestra and collaborated with conductors such as Ashkenazi, Davis, Previn and Rostropovich. He received an OBE in 2002 for services to music and holds an honorary doctorate from Queen’s University, Belfast.

‘You can get a feel of the whole panorama of Belfast from a height. Being partly surrounded by hills enables the admirer to embrace the whole city in one go. As a child I loved books on architecture and my favourite photos were of downtown Manhattan. I got excited if I could get a vantage point above my city that gave the feeling of a thriving and impressive metropolis as well.

I would gaze for hours at the Union Building beside the Albert Clock or the white Queen’s University ‘skyscraper’ on the Stranmillis Road. Positioning myself at Belfast Castle and peering down on Belfast Lough at the ships arriving from Liverpool or Heysham excited me. Better still was driving down the M2 and being dazzled with the view of Belfast port. But, the best way to catch Belfast in all its beauty and roughness and strength was from Knock. I would be returning with my parents from visiting relatives in the undulating hills above and the descent into the city always made me gasp with admiration. My city had tall buildings, giant cranes, a downtown, parks, an estuary, highways, noise, smoke and purpose. This was a picture worthy of any book. And the view just gets better!