In this Musical Moment, VocalEssence artistic director and founder Philip Brunelle shares insider information and beautiful music by the composer Carol Barnett.

Carol Barnett

b. 1949

Minneapolis composer Carol Barnett was born in Dubuque, Iowa, was raised in Minnesota and was a lover of music from childhood. She attended the University of Minnesota for her bachelor’s and master’s degrees and studied piano with Bernhard Weiser, flute with Emil J. Niosi, and composition with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler. She later served as the composer-in-residence for the Dale Warland Singers and taught at Augsburg University. Barnett’s music is grounded in her Western classical canon, but also influenced by extensive research and immersion in different cultures and musical styles, including bluegrass, Russian, Mediterranean, and Middle Eastern folk styles, and liturgical Jewish music. Barnett masterfully uses harmony in order to evoke the mood of the texts that she sets in her uniquely heartfelt choral pieces.

Suggested choral pieces:

1. Gloria (from The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass) (Boosey & Hawkes HL48019686)
2. The Last Invocation (Boosey & Hawkes HL48004417)
3. Dance of Zalongo (Alliance Music Publications AMP0535)

For more on Carol Barnett, visit her website: https://www.carolbarnett.net/