Barere was born in Odessa (then Russian Empire, now part of Ukraine) as the eleventh of thirteen children in a Jewish family.
During the autumn of 1935, he toured the UK under the management of Harold Holt, making a number of appearances as supporting artist to Richard Tauber.
[2] On 2 April 1951, Barere suffered a cerebral hemorrhage during a performance of Grieg's Piano Concerto at Carnegie Hall, with Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.
In 1985, his complete HMV recordings, made at Abbey Road Studios between 1934 and 1936, were remastered by Bryan Crimp and issued by APR.
Barere made a series of recordings for Remington in March 1951, showing the pianist in fine form before his sudden death the following month.