Brian Barker

Plays with SchlagKraft Mallets

Brian Barker

 

Brian Barker (born 1976) has been Solo Timpanist of the Philharmonic State Orchestra of Hamburg, Germany since 2006.  He plays regularily with many of the major German orchestras, and was invited to spend the 2014/2015 season with the orchestra of La Scala, Milano. From 2016-2019 he was a visiting professor at the Cantelli Conservatory in Novara, Italy, and has been teaching at the Hamburg Hochschule since 2018. He has appeared as soloist with orchestras in Canada, the USA, Poland, Romania and Germany, and gives masterclasses throughout Europe.

An active chamber musician, he is keen not only to promote his art but also challenge composers to create interesting works for timpani and percussion. In 2019 he premiered CREDO IN UNUM DEUM fort timpani and percussion trio from Nebojsa Jovan Zivkovic in Hamburg, and played the Austrian premiere in 2020. In 2021 he will premiere a new work for marimba and viola by Canadian composer Christien Ledroit. 2022 will see premieres of 2 new works by the German composer Stefan Schäfer.