Heidi Barker

Education

MM, Chamber Music Performance: Violin, UW-Milwaukee
MM, String Pedagogy, UW-Milwaukee
BA, Music: Concentration in Violin, Covenant College

Biography

Heidi Barker is a Milwaukee based violinist and teacher who is passionate about sharing music through both performance and education. After growing up surrounded by musical parents and siblings, she completed her Bachelor of Arts in Music at Covenant College and went on to study String Pedagogy with Darcy Drexler at UW-Milwaukee and Chamber Music Performance with Dr. Bernard Zinck at the Sorkin International Institute of Chamber Music. Since completing her masters degrees in String Pedagogy and Chamber Music Performance, Heidi has participated in musical internships and performances in Tasmania, France, Haiti and around the U. S. She has been a regular leader and presenter for pedagogy workshops run by non-profits East Lake Expression Engine and BLUME Haiti. She now teaches at the UWM String Academy and at Wauwatosa School of music.

Performance experiences include the Milwaukee Opera Theatre, the Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra, the Milwaukee Philharmonic, the Chamber Music Milwaukee Series, the Silver Lake Concert Series, the Cradle Coast Orchestra of Burnie, Tasmania, the Sheboygan Symphony Orchestra, the Manitowoc Symphony Orchestra, the South Side Casual Classics series, the St. Elmo Piano Trio, the Tuppence Duo, and as a resident violinist in the Sorkin International Chamber Music Institute’s string quartet which was hailed as “Powerful” by Milwaukee’s Shepherd Express. As a soloist she has appeared with the Covenant College Orchestra and the Launceston Youth and Community Orchestra’s Residential String Camp Orchestra in Australia.

Heidi plays on a 1761 Viennese violin made by Johann Georg Huber, a luthier whose instruments, though sometimes critiqued for lacking brilliance, are appreciated today for their clear articulation and gentle, bright tone quality.

Recent Work