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Barry Tan


Remarked in the Boston Globe for his "mesmerizing performance", Canadian pianist Barry Tan is enjoying a career as an active soloist, collaborative artist, and educator in Los Angeles, California. Most recently, Barry was a grand prize winner at the Concert Artists International Competition and at the Vancouver International Music Competition, winning the prize for the Best Performance of a Canadian work. He has performed as a soloist with the University of Victoria Symphony Orchestra, the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra, the Harmonia Chamber Orchestra, the University of Southern California Symphony Orchestra, and the Vancouver Metropolitan Orchestra.

In addition to maintaining his private studio, Barry served on faculty at California Baptist University, Collinsworth School of Music. Previously, he was a studio teaching assistant to the piano faculty at the University of Southern California. His duties included lecturing group piano/keyboard harmony sequence classes to music and non-music majors, as well as private instruction to piano majors from the undergraduate to doctorate levels. His pedagogy expertise has been presented at the Florida State Music Teachers Conference, the California Association of Professional Music Teachers, and the MTNA National Collegiate Conference. Formerly in Canada, Barry served at Place Des Arts' Music School in Coquitlam BC, where his duties includes private applied instruction, directing the chamber music program, and serving as a pre-college group theory instructor for the Royal Conservatory and Conservatory Canada examination systems. Currently Barry serves as summer faculty at the Montecito International Music Festival, and Idyllwild Arts Academy.

In demand as a collaborative pianist in recitals, concerts, and recordings, Barry's work has led him to various performances and recordings with instrumentalists, choral groups, and singers throughout North America. Highlights include collaborating with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, LA Opera, and LA Master Chorale; serving as competition pianist for the Primrose International Viola Competition in Los Angeles, the James Toland Vocal Competition in San Francisco; and staff pianist at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, Santa Monica College, and at the Colburn School. Finding a broad spectrum of performance and collaborative performances in the 21st century, Barry has been a church musician in various worship bands and services, served in several musical theater pit bands, was the workshop pianist for Roger Allers (The Lion King) and Genaro Pereira's upcoming musical, "The Grasshopper", and has been engaged with a handful of LA entertainment industry professionals.

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In recent seasons, highlights include solo and collaborative performances throughout Los Angeles, Vancouver, Victoria, Vancouver Island, Montana, Michigan, San Francisco, New York, and in Massachusetts at the Tanglewood Music Festival- where he was given the opportunity to work and study with world-renowned artists such as Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Kiril Gerstein, Andris Nelson, and Yo-Yo Ma. He has recorded on IPR Radio WIAA 98.7FM at Interlochen's Studio A, had featured performances with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra on the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO Now) streaming, as well as collaborative performances through the Violin Channel. Barry has performed at notable venues such as the Chan Center of the Arts (Vancouver, Canada), Tanglewood Music Center (Massachusetts, USA), Mozarteum (Salzburg, Austria), Banff Center Rolston Recital Hall (Banff, Canada), War Memorial Opera House (San Francisco, USA), Gilles-Lefebvre Concert Hall (Quebec, Canada), Herbert Zipper Concert Hall (Los Angeles, USA), and Carnegie Hall, Weill Recital Hall (New York City, USA).

As an active Music Teachers National Association (MTNA), Barry served as President for two consecutive years at USC during his doctoral studies. He has contributed to three volumes of e-journal articles, CAPMT Connect, for the California Association of Professional Music Teachers (CAPMT). His latest peer-reviewed article “Sight Reading for the Contemporary Pianist” was published in October 2022. He has been an adjudicator for the district 3 CAPMT spring festival, and is a currently active member on the west side of Los Angeles. His students have been recipients of local scholarships, competition prizes, RCM examination first class honors and distinction holders, summer music festival acceptances, as well as graduate school acceptances.

Previously Barry studied at McGill University, Schulich School of Music, under full scholarship, and at the University of Victoria, where he was awarded the President's Scholarship, and graduated with distinction. He is grateful to have received funding from the BC Arts Council, the Vancouver Women's Musical Society, the Montreal Jewish Foundation, and the Vancouver Koerner Foundation. Barry received his Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Southern California, Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, where he was awarded Most Outstanding Graduate in the Keyboard Studies Department.

In his spare time, Barry enjoys exploring new neighbourhoods in Los Angeles, film photography, watching A24 movies, and producing contemporary beats on Logic Pro X. Barry's music production work can be found at: @baresztrks. His most recent entertainment industry credits include, playing for a live audience of over 80,000 at Sofi Stadium for the WWE Wrestlemania 2023. This video performance has amassed over 1.5 million streams on Instagram. He has also been engaged with celebrity clientele for piano tutoring, and engagement on music video sets.

If interested to be part of Barry’s private studio, or for any engagements, please do not hesitate to fill out this form.

Collegiate, Academic record

Update, February 2024