Concert activities of Jiří Bárta, one of the foremost cellists of his generation, have taken him to most of European countries, North & South America, Australia, Japan and Korea as well as Africa and Middle East. He has appeared at festivals such as Edinburgh, Kuhmo, Lugano, Newport, Prague Spring Festival, Schubert Festival Salzburg, Schleswig Holstein Musik Festival. As a concerto soloist or in recital he has performed in venues such as Berlin Philharmonic Hall, Berlin Konzerthaus, Birmingham Symphony Hall, Manchester Bridgewater Hall, Buenos Aires Teatro Colon, Carnegie Weill Recital Hall, Dublin Concert Hall, Edinburgh Queen Elisabeth Hall, L’Auditorio in Barcelona, Los Angeles Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, London Wigmore Hall, Royce Hall at UCLA, Prague Rudolfinum, Tokyo Suntory and Casals Halls, Paris Theatre Chatelet, Paris Auditorium de Louvre, Salzburg Mozarteum, Soul Arts Center, Washington National Gallery with instrumentalists such as Quatuor Ebene, Ilya Gringolts, Chloe Hanslip, Martin Kasík, Piers Lane, Konstantin Lifschitz, Hamish Milne, Vadim Repin, Dmitri Sitkovetski, Josef Suk or Antoine Tamestit, with orchestras such as Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Symphony, Prague Philharmonia, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic London, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Scottish Royal Philharmonic Orchestra Glasgow, Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra and, finaly, with conductors such as Jiří Bělohlávek, Charles Dutoit, Jakub Hrůša, Gianandrea Noseda, Libor Pešek, Gennadi Rozhdestvenski and Maxim Shostakovich.
As a recording artist on a Supraphon label Jiří Bárta has released Dvorak Celloconcerto with Czech Philharmonic/Jiří Bělohlávek, live recording of performance commemorating Dvorak‘s 100 year’s anniversary televised throughout Europe by Arte Channel. Both CDs with Kodaly Cello works and Martinu/Foerster/Novak concertos respectively have been awarded Gramophon Editor’s Choice. His other Supraphon recordings include Bach Cello Suites and Shostakovich concertos, two discs for Hyperion include sonatas by Moscheles, Hummel and Rubinstein Sonatas. He has collaborated with mezzosoprano Magdalena Kozena on her Deutsche Grammophon Lieder project awarded by Gramophone Award.
As an enthusiastic chamber musician Jiri has co-founded Kutna Hora Chamber Music Festival, festival aimed at both worlds of contemporary and classical music which gained instant recogition as one of the top classical festivals in the Czech Republic.
Jiří Bárta studied in Prague with Josef Chuchro, in Cologne with Boris Pergamenschikow and in Los Angeles with Eleonore Schoenfeld. After winning number of national competitions he has been awarded the Europäische Förderpreis für Musik in Dresden and the Rostropovich-Hammer Award in Los Angeles. Jiří was featured in Czech TV documentary „Můj pokus o mistrovský opus (Bárta versus Bach Cello Suites)“ which won Prix CIRCOM of 2015 in Irland.
Jiří Bárta currently plays violoncello built by Dietmar Rexhausen in 2012.