Barda decided to combine his interests in photography and classical music, and a chance encounter with a journalist for South Wales Magazine led to his first commission: photographing the harpist Susan Drake at home, on 12 November 1968.
At the time, Drake's husband, John Wilbraham, was recording the Haydn and Hummel trumpet concertos and the producer asked Barda to shoot the album's sleeve.
Drake then showed Barda's work to her agent, who recommended him to other artists, thus opening up opportunities for further engagements.
Within a few months, Barda had his big break:
In 1969, I went to a concert at London's South Bank, where pianist Daniel Barenboim and the cellist Jacqueline du Pré were playing Beethoven sonatas. (...)
Barenboim was the most famous musician I had come close to and I decided to ask if I could photograph him conducting.
To my amazement, Barenboim said "OK".

— Clive Barda, Performance!
Musicians in Photographs, "An Interview with Clive Barda" by Graeme Kay
The rehearsal took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall the following Tuesday, and Barda showed the resulting contact sheets to Barenboim a few days later, in the Royal Festival Hall's green room.
There, he also met Peter Andry, a senior executive at EMI, who suggested that Barda show his pictures to the art department at EMI.
This immediately led to Barda's first major commission: to photograph Yehudi Menuhin, at EMI's No.
1 Studio, Abbey Road.

During the following decades, Barda has portrayed the world's leading classical musicians, as well as performers in opera, dance, theatre and musicals, as a freelance photographer.
In her review of Barda's book Performance! (
2000) for The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins stated:
Over the past 30 years, Barda has photographed anyone who is anyone in music, from late, great luminaries such as Lucia Popp, Olivier Messiaen, Benjamin Britten and Charles Groves to today's young stars such as Evgeny Kissin, David Daniels and Cecilia Bartoli.

— Charlotte Higgins, The classical picture show
Barda has been closely associated with major British locations, such as the
Barbican Hall, 
Edinburgh International Festival, 
English National Opera, 
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 
Her Majesty's Theatre, 
National Theatre, 
Opera North, 
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 
Queen's Hall, 
Royal Albert Hall, 
Royal Festival Hall, 
Royal Lyceum Theatre,
Royal Opera House, 
Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon,
St John's, Smith Square,
Usher Hall,
and Welsh National Opera.

He has also worked abroad: in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, the U.S., and China.
He has taken photographs during rehearsals and recordings in the studios of AIR Studios, the BBC, CBS, EMI's Abbey Road Studios, Olympic Studios, among others, as well as at the home venues of major orchestras such as the LSO.

By 2012, Barda had already produced more than a million photographs, and has been referred to as the doyen of British music photography.
Barda decided to combine his interests in photography and classical music, and a chance encounter with a journalist for South Wales Magazine led to his first commission: photographing the harpist Susan Drake at home, on 12 November 1968. At the time, Drake's husband, John Wilbraham, was recording the Haydn and Hummel trumpet concertos and the producer asked Barda to shoot the album's sleeve. Drake then showed Barda's work to her agent, who recommended him to other artists, thus opening up opportunities for further engagements. Within a few months, Barda had his big break:
In 1969, I went to a concert at London's South Bank, where pianist Daniel Barenboim and the cellist Jacqueline du Pré were playing Beethoven sonatas. (...) Barenboim was the most famous musician I had come close to and I decided to ask if I could photograph him conducting. To my amazement, Barenboim said "OK".
— Clive Barda, Performance! Musicians in Photographs, "An Interview with Clive Barda" by Graeme Kay
The rehearsal took place at the Queen Elizabeth Hall the following Tuesday, and Barda showed the resulting contact sheets to Barenboim a few days later, in the Royal Festival Hall's green room. There, he also met Peter Andry, a senior executive at EMI, who suggested that Barda show his pictures to the art department at EMI. This immediately led to Barda's first major commission: to photograph Yehudi Menuhin, at EMI's No. 1 Studio, Abbey Road.
During the following decades, Barda has portrayed the world's leading classical musicians, as well as performers in opera, dance, theatre and musicals, as a freelance photographer. In her review of Barda's book Performance! (2000) for The Guardian, Charlotte Higgins stated:
Over the past 30 years, Barda has photographed anyone who is anyone in music, from late, great luminaries such as Lucia Popp, Olivier Messiaen, Benjamin Britten and Charles Groves to today's young stars such as Evgeny Kissin, David Daniels and Cecilia Bartoli.
— Charlotte Higgins, The classical picture show
Barda has been closely associated with major British locations, such as the
Barbican Hall, 
Edinburgh International Festival, 
English National Opera, 
Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 
Her Majesty's Theatre, 
National Theatre, 
Opera North, 
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 
Queen's Hall, 
Royal Albert Hall, 
Royal Festival Hall, 
Royal Lyceum Theatre,
Royal Opera House, 
Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-upon-Avon,
St John's, Smith Square,
Usher Hall,
and Welsh National Opera.
He has also worked abroad: in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, the U.S., and China. He has taken photographs during rehearsals and recordings in the studios of AIR Studios, the BBC, CBS, EMI's Abbey Road Studios, Olympic Studios, among others, as well as at the home venues of major orchestras such as the LSO.
By 2012, Barda had already produced more than a million photographs, and has been referred to as the doyen of British music photography.
Clive Barda