"Harbach's music is on the whole remarkably gentle
and comfortable-sounding, even comforting - never fierce even when vigorous--and there is very little music I would put in such a category.”
R. James Tobin, Classical.com ~ July 2008

“[Harbach] is a master organist and harpsichordist...She's a dead-on-heart-and-soul American romanticist in the Copland-Hanson-Harris mold... Harbach's music astonished me for its heavy reliance on the lyric and the beautifully (and cogently) framed melodic line. I could listen to her music for hours. This music is so uniquely characterized with its own sense of beauty that it makes me wonder where this woman has been all our lives. This is music that really needs to be heard. A great deal of credit for the success of the music on [this record] goes to the conductor and the sound engineers. They have done their best to present the composer, who should someday-if there is any justice in the universe-become a household name. You have got to hear this woman's music if you're a fan of mid-century American romanticism. She brings something entirely new to the table..”
American Record Guide ~ March / April 2008

"Fundamentally based on American folk and hymn-tune style, these attractive pieces occasionally suggest Copland in film-score mode and are often quiet, contemplative and peaceful in spirit. The melodies are lovely, the orchestration never thick or gaudy, emotion present but never heart-on-sleeve; in short, dignified and instantly approachable orchestral works."
Records International ~ December 2007

"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.