Barbara Harbach is a versatile figure, active as a composer, organist, harpsichordist, and educator. She is also noted as an editor, founding the journal Women of Note and publishing works by neglected composers. Harbach was born in Pennsylvania on February 14, 1946. She earned a B.A. from Penn State University, majoring in music and studying organ and harpsichord. She went on for a master's degree from Yale and a doctorate in composition from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York. She also traveled to the Musikhochschule Frankfurt for studies on the organ with Helmut Walcha; he expressed the opinion that women did not belong in the organ-playing profession, but Harbach persisted and earned a Konzertdiplom degree. Harbach's Praise Him with the Trumpet, for chorus and organ, was published in 1977. She has gone on to write works in most major concert music genres, including at least ten symphonies, chamber music, choral works, an opera, keyboard works, and musical theater. Among her most notable works is One of Ours -- A Cather Symphony, inspired by novelist Willa Cather: her 2009 opera O Pioneers! is also based on Cather's writings. Harbach's recording catalog stretches back to the late '80s, when she issued the first of a series of albums devoted to 20th century harpsichord music on the Gasparo Records label. She has remained associated with Gasparo but has also recorded for MSR Classics, Albany, and her own Hester Park label. Harbach is noted for her performances of Bach, historical music for harpsichord and organ by women composers, and a variety of 20th century music. As an organist, Harbach has proven especially peripatetic, traveling across the U.S., Europe, and Asia as far afield as Siberia. She has had a successful career as an educator, teaching both performance and composition at Washington State University, the University of Wisconsin - Oshkosh, the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point, and, since 2004, the University of Missouri - St. Louis, where she is now professor emerita. Recordings of Harbach's music have grown consistently more numerous, and The Music of Barbara Harbach, Vol. 1, earned a Recording of the Year nod for 2008 from MusicWeb International and a Critic's Choice designation from the American Record Guide. In 1993, Harbach co-founded the Women of Note Quarterly, and she remains its editor. She has also edited early music by women in performing editions. By 2022, more than 60 recordings featured Harbach, either as composer or performer, and that year, Music of Barbara Harbach, Vol. 15: Orchestral Music VI appeared on MSR Classics. ~ James Manheim, Rovi