Gail Barber

Gail Barber
Harpist/Composer/Master Classes

Gail Barber, a brilliant and sensitive performer and a creative composer, has appeared in recital and as soloist with orchestra in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe and the Middle East. An unusually versatile artist, she performs and composes music in many styles: classical, jazz and contemporary music. Ms. Barber graduated from the Eastman School of Music where she was an honor student of Eileen Malone and was awarded the Performer's Certificate in Harp. She has been a member of the Rochester Philharmonic, Eastman Philharmonia and Chicago Little Symphony orchestras and has played under such conductors as Leinsdorf, Monteux, Martinon and Gurer Aykal. Ms. Barber has been featured at the Edinburgh (Scotland) Harp Festival, the International Istanbul (Turkey) Music Festival, the World Harp Congress (Vienna, Austria) and the Opening Recital of the American Harp Society National Conference. She is on the Touring Artist Roster for the Texas Commission for the Arts.

Many of her original compositions for harp (such as Windmill Sketches) relate to the culture or history of a country and are played all over the world. She has received several commissions for harp compositions, including Sound Painting (from the Design Institute, Texas Tech University), and Wildflower Suite (from the National Wildflower Conference). Her Songs of Destiny for Harp, Mezzo Soprano, Marrator and Tibetan Chimes were premiered at her Opening Recital for the American Harp Society National Conference in 1990. Selections from Jazz for Harp, Volumes 1 & 2, were premiered at her recital for the Edinburgh Harp Festival, 1993. During her solo recital for the International Istanbul Music Festival, 1985, she premiered A Turkish Fantasy. The audience refused to let her leave the stage until she had repeated it! - and she was immediately engaged to repeat the recital on Turkish network Television before an audience of some 50 Million people!

Editor of the American Harp Journal, the international Magazine of the harp world, for nine years, she was a Guest of Honor at the International Harp Contests in Jerusalem, Israel in 1979, 1982 and 1985, and was one of two American harpists on an international Jury for the World Harp Congress in Paris in 1990.

Especially interested in the use of the harp for Music Therapy, Ms. Barber has worked extensively with Dr. Ingrid Naiman of Santa Fe, New Mexico in providing intuitive music (Spontaneously composed) for clients. Two of her audio cassettes, one CD and one video contain music for meditation/healing. She will soon release two more CDs of music for healing.

On May 5, 1995 Ms. Barber shared a program with Martha Lewis, Executive Director of the Music for Healing and Transition Program, at the State Convention of the Texas and New Mexico Hospice Organizations and the Academy of Hospice Physicians. They stressed the impact of sound and music in our lives and the role music, particularly harp music, can play in therapeutic treatments for patients with serious illnesses, identified results of the therapeutic use of music in the healing process and suggested ways to integrate music into patient treatment programs. She has recorded for Mercury, HBN, Opus One (New York), Countdown Productions, CRS Master Recordings and Dorian Systems and has transcribed numerous works for harp ensemble. She attracts outstanding students from all over the world to Texas Tech University where she is Professor of Harp.