As all creative people, we have our optimistic side and a darker side. Yes, I would say that I am more optimistic than not. I have written some very …

- Barbara Harbach

Who can forget the music of the French composer Germaine Tailleferre? These are just a few composers whose aesthetic ideals we all share, and there a…

- Barbara Harbach

I should mention that I took piano lessons beginning when I was four. My mother was my first teacher, and it was a wonderful way to bond with her. Sh…

- Barbara Harbach

Thankfully, it is getting better for women composers. We now have five women Pulitzer Prize winners in music since 1983: Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, Shulam…

- Barbara Harbach

I played for my first church service when I was nine years old. I was sufficiently tall to be able to reach the pedals. The first hymn I played was B…

- Barbara Harbach

I am a morning person and start work, whether composing, rehearsing, preparing syllabi/tests, or proofing an article or manuscript, early in the morn…

- Barbara Harbach

I have written six symphonies, they are smaller-scale works. I seem to emit my themes, work them out, combine and intertwine them, and then come to a…

- Barbara Harbach

In some ways, it is difficult for contemporary composers to find an audience. Both men and women would love a culture that embraced and hungered for …

- Barbara Harbach

For some reason I seem to absorb the landscape and cultures where I am planted. A State Divided Symphony was inspired by the 150th anniversary of Mis…

- Barbara Harbach