In 2007, composer, musician, professor and publisher Barbara Harbach debuted a movie score, a stage musical and two new choral works. And that’s what she calls a slow year
By Chris King
Photograph by David Torrence
Those who know the St. Louis music scene—or, really, scenes—in any depth know this town harbors any number of artists who rank among the national (or international) leaders in their craft, yet are little known locally outside their musical niche. The composer, musician and publisher Barbara Harbach is one.
A woman is much more than her resume, but a partial list of Harbach’s recent projects is needed to suggest the range and reach of her accomplishments.
Her original score to Matrimony’s Speed Limit, a 1913 silent film made by Alice Guy-Blaché (who’s considered the first woman director), was premiered at the 2007 St. Louis International Film Festival in November. An October program at the Sheldon, “A Tribute to Pioneer Women,” featured four of Harbach’s chamber pieces, honoring folks like Maya Angelou, Abigail Adams and Nancy Kranzberg. In September she presided over the release of two CDs of her compositions—one set for orchestra, the other for chamber ensemble—both recorded in Bratislava, Slovakia, and put out by MSR Classics (Newton, Conn.). And her stage musical Booth! (with a book by Niyi Coker) premiered at the Touhill on the campus of the University of Missouri–St. Louis in April. (The title refers to main character Edwin Booth, whose acting career was overshadowed by his notorious brother, John Wilkes.)
Even that rundown passes over a North County church performance of her organ compositions and the premiere of two new choral works at Unity Evangelical Lutheran in Bel-Nor and at Nativity Lutheran Church in Niagara Falls, N.Y. Not to mention the fact that Harbach publishes all of her own compositions, with her business Vivace Press, which specializes in underrepresented composers—particularly other women, but also African-American, Ukrainian and Mexican composers. All of that, plus a day job (professor of music at UMSL) and a consuming volunteer gig (director of music at Little Flower Catholic Church in Richmond Heights).
Mind you, most of the above was accomplished in only one season (fall) of only one year (2007), which might be considered almost a slow year by Harbach’s standards. In 2005, for example, in addition to her work as a composer and musician, Harbach organized Women in the Arts, conceived of as “a year-long, multivenue celebration of women creators present and past,” which involved nearly every local arts institution and organization in the production of more than 850 events. Her credits as a composer and performer go back to the mid-1980s and take her all around the country and the world, springing from a sturdy academic foundation that includes degrees from Yale University (M.M.A.) and the Eastman School of Music (D.M.A.).
Harbach, who grew up “in the hills of Pennsylvania,” came to UMSL in 2003 in a package deal with her husband, Thomas George, who is the chancellor (and a chemistry prof and jazz pianist). Now she does her composing on piano (and computer) at home—that is, in the chancellor’s residence. Of course, a champion of women like Harbach would not merely trail her husband. The move to UMSL worked to her advantage, since the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point, the couple’s prior academic home, had employed her as a professor of math and computing (other specialties of hers). “The music department there didn’t want me,” she said.
The music scene—or scenes—in St. Louis want her. Harbach said she likes St. Louis, not least because it has been generous to her as a composer. “I’ve had the good fortune to get musicians here to perform things by me and like them,” she said. The Equinox Chamber Players and the St. Louis Women’s Chorale have performed her compositions, as have UMSL music faculty members and Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra players in various settings. “St. Louis is very open,” she said, “and the performers are not blasé, not burned out.” Nor—by any stretch—is this whirlwind of a musician, composer, publisher and woman.
Learn more about Harbach’s latest academic projects, as well as Women in the Arts, by visiting www.umsl.edu/~harbachb; to see her personal projects, go to barbaraharbach.com.
