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Percussion celebration Thursday to honor DPU Prof. Barber
The DePauw Percussion Ensemble and The Percussion Plus Project join forces Thursday in a festive evening honoring Dr. Amy Lynn Barber, professor of music and former dean of the DePauw School of Music.
The focus of Barber's work at the university has been commissioning and performing new compositions for percussion and other instruments, several of which will be featured on this program. Joining the celebration will be faculty pianist May Phang, guest cellist Ruth Marshall and DePauw percussion alums Josiah Rushing and Patrick Speranza.
Professor Barber, who has been on sabbatical the past year and will officially retire from DePauw at the end of the academic year, enjoys a distinguished international career as a performer, teacher, arts administrator and advocate for contemporary music, activities that have taken her to five continents.
As a soloist and as director of The Percussion Plus Project, Barber is known for innovative programming and presentation of new music to a broad audience. She has commissioned, premiered and recorded more than 50 new solo and chamber works from European and American composers, and has worked closely with composers such as John Cage, Elliott Carter, Augusta Read Thomas, Tania Leon, Chen Yi, Libby Larsen and many others.
Barber is especially known for her advocacy of the music of composer George Crumb, having organized and directed several festivals of his music in Europe and the U.S.
As an orchestral percussionist, Barber has been a member of the Slovenian Philharmonic and the Prague Symphony and has played with orchestras in New England, Texas and Michigan. She has performed and recorded with many outstanding conductors, including Carlos Kleiber, Seiji Ozawa, Leonard Bernstein, Kurt Masur, Jiri Belohlavek, Simone Young, Charles Mackerras and JoAnn Falletta.
Before coming to DePauw in 2002, Barber was professor of percussion at the Prague Conservatory and directed the percussion program at the Interlochen Arts Academy. At DePauw, she was the founder and director of the annual Music of the 21st Century festival and of the innovative performance event Percussion@Peeler, and led the DePauw Percussion Ensemble on tours to Central Europe, Brazil and China. She has twice been awarded Fulbright lectureships for research and teaching abroad.
While living in Prague, Ljubljana and Vienna, Barber founded and directed two non-profit organizations that presented concert series, festivals, workshops, courses and international conferences. During this 12-year period in her career, she received strong support from both government and private sources, including embassies and ministries of culture of other nations, and established collaborations with institutions such as the American Composers Forum, Czech Music Fund, the Prague Spring Festival, the Prague Academy of Music, the European Month of Culture, the Slovenian Philharmonic and the Slovenian Composers Society, among others.
For her "activities in contemporary music and promotion of Czech-American cultural relations," Barber was awarded the National Music Prize of the Czech Music Council and made an honorary member of the council. She was also the first foreign musician elected to membership in Umelecka Beseda, a Czech society of artists founded by composer Bedrich Smetana in 1863.
During her tenure at DePauw, Prof. Barber was awarded a Faculty Fellowship, the Fisher Fellowship and shared a New Directions grant with Eugene Gloria and Lori Miles.
In 2007, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Boston University School of Music, with the citation: "Amy Lynn Barber epitomizes the twenty-first century musician. As teacher, performer and educational leader, she has imaginatively become a role model for all aspiring musicians. An inspirational figure to students, administrators and faculty alike, Amy Lynn Barber is a potent force for change and reconstruction of music institutions."
"I have long followed Amy Lynn Barber's career," says Bonnie Whiting, who currently directs the DePauw Percussion Ensemble. "Her commitment to commissioning new works, bringing percussion to diverse audiences, and her international schedule really make her one of the artists that put percussion as an art form on the map. Beyond this, she is an astoundingly talented musician. It has been a joy to work with her this week, and we are very much looking forward to the concert Thursday evening."
Admission to the percussion celebration honoring Prof. Barber and the reception following it are free. No tickets are needed.