"Barbara Harbach is... a remarkably prolific American composer... In the first chords of Veneration, Harbach presents her listeners with aural candy; delightful harmonies orchestrated by lush string textures effectively paint the evocative movement titles: I. Blessings: Gift of Blood, II. Charity-Caress, and III. Grace: Pleasure Heart. The 1st movement’s gushing lyricism gives way to the imitative nature of the 2nd, whose original incarnation was a piece for cello and voice. The last movement effectively synthesizes the thematic elements of the piece within its own contrapuntal architecture. This delightfully rewarding piece belies her film score background, imbued with the characteristics of a storyteller of evocative imagery.

The following Frontier Fancies is equally intelligently crafted, successfully conveying frontier images with its driving rhythms and Copland-esque harmonies, led superbly by violinist František Novotný. It is a many-hued mosaic of themes inspired by America’s heartland, simultaneously jubilant and pensive. The movements each have their own interactions between soloist and orchestra, as outlined by Harbach in the CD liner notes:  “In ‘Fiddleflirt,’ the two are protagonists in a duel of speed and energy. ‘Twilight Dream’ is an evocative aria and lush respite before the wild tarantella of ‘Dancedevil’.”

The succeeding Arcadian Reverie is essentially a lush theme and variations on a pastoral theme that harkens very closely to “Simple Gifts,” though not explicitly. The interplay of melodic motives as the piece draws towards its conclusion displays Harbach’s compositional creative mastery.

In Rhapsody Jardine, renowned oboist Cynthia Green Libby makes full use of the oboe’s expressive tessitura as she produces a rich sound comparable to a watercolor tapestry in its sheer beauty and scope of shading. Harbach often employs numerous themes which are then unified at the piece’s conclusion, which she does here with a plaintive duet between oboe and cello followed by an orchestral unison statement of the fugual subject that characterized the latter half of the piece. Driven by Libby’s superb musicianship, the piece is a remarkable tableau.

In her description of how One of Ours – a Cather Symphony came into being, Harbach betrays an immense respect for Willa Cather as well as a personal connection to the characters and events that make up the novel One of Ours. She spins the story of Cather’s protagonist Claude Wheeler in different stages of his experience in World War I. “On Lovely Creek” is a bucolic portrayal of Claude in his homeland of Nebraska, happily naive and content in the world he knows. “Autumn in Beaufort” depicts a respite to the war, a minor celebration in a town recently liberated from the Germans.   The notes of Harbach’s composition become the characters that are enjoying the simple things in life recently denied in the period of suffering and war. The final “Honor at Boar’s Head” is a memoriam of the thousands of lives lost to preserve the American freedom we hold so dear. The entire piece is uniquely evocative and features a more introspective expression from Harbach."
Robert Myers, Classical Voice of New England ~ June 2009

"Extensively active as composer, performer, academician, musicologist, and publicist, Barbara Harbach's contributions to American music have been noteworthy."
All Music Guide ~ December 2007

“It was a great pleasure to listen to Barbara Harbach’s orchestral... works. This is music of great freshness, poignancy, and musicality written by a composer with extraordinary technique.”
Sam Adler, composer ~ August 2007

American composer BARBARA HARBACH has a large catalog of works, including symphonies, works for chamber ensemble, string orchestra, organ, harpsichord, musicals, choral anthems, film scores, modern ballets, and many arrangements for brass and organ of various Baroque works. She is also involved in the research, editing and publication of manuscripts of eighteenth-century keyboard composers as well as historical and contemporary women composers. Her works are available in both recorded and published form through labels including MSR Classics, Naxos, Gasparo Records, Kingdom Records, Albany Records and Northeastern Records, and publishers including Hester Park, Robert King, Elkan-Vogel, Augsburg Publishing, Agape Music and Vivace Press.

Harbach has toured extensively as both a concert organist and harpsichordist, and her lively performances and recordings have captured the imagination of many American composers. The body of work written for and dedicated to Harbach is substantial. Musical America has called her "nothing short of brilliant," and Gramophone has cited her as an "acknowledged interpreter – and, indeed, muse – of modern harpsichord music." She was host of the weekly television music series Palouse Performance seen throughout the Inland Northwest.

Currently professor of music at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Harbach holds academic degrees from Pennsylvania State University (BA), Yale University (MMA), Musikhochschule (Konzertdiplom) in Frankfurt, Germany, and the Eastman School of Music (DMA). In 2002, she received an honorary doctorate in music, honoris causa, from Wilmington College, Ohio for her lifetime achievement as a composer, performer, editor and publisher. Harbach is also the editor of Women of Note Quarterly.