Reviewed as “a composer of tremendous sensibility and intelligence”, Scottish-American Jennifer Margaret Barker has received performances of her compositions on five continents. The Scotsman hailed her music as “extraordinarily moving” and “illuminated by dreamy images”, while Gramophone described her work as “the most haunting”. Further international reviews have described her works as “soul-stirring”, “at once gripping and timeless”, “show-stopping”, “anything but passive”, “blazingly alive, with lovely, aching melodies”, and “richly evocative music”.
Performances, commissions and recordings of her orchestral and large choral compositions include those presented by The Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra with the St. Louis Children's Chorus, The Detroit Symphony Orchestra, The New Jersey Symphony Orchestra with the New Jersey Youth Choirs, and The Virginia Symphony with The Virginia Children’s Chorus, The Fort Collins Symphony, the Moravian Philharmonic (Czech Republic), The Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra with the Central Illinois Children's Chorus, The Lynchburg Symphony with Cantate Children’s and Youth Choir of Central Virginia, The Bearsden Choir with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra Brass and Percussion Ensembles, Vocal de Cámara Platense (Argentina), and The Children’s Chorus of Maryland. Her chamber works have been commissioned, performed and recorded by ensembles such The Scottish Chamber Orchestra String Quartet and String Trio, Orchestra 2001, Relâche, Network for New Music, Society for New Music, Mélomanie, 6-WIRE, Marimolin, Vocali3e, Luna Nova, Newprism Ensemble, Women in Music-Columbus, Colorado College Woodwind Quintet, Christiana Winds, Trio Arundel, Musica Nova, The Holywell Ensemble, Duo Pegasus and Tiger Lily Trio. International concert artists who have commissioned, performed and recorded her solo works include Martin Jones, Alice K. Dade, John Novacek, Sharon Harms, John McMurtery, Kevin Robert Orr, Heather Corbett, Grant Youngblood, Ivano Ascari, Leonardo Carrieri, Francesca Hurst and Jeffrey Jacob.
Among her recent composition awards are the 2022 Miriam Gideon Prize from the International Alliance for Women in Music; the 2022 New Ariel Piano Composition Competition; the 2021 Masters Fellowship Award from the Delaware Division of the Arts for artistic excellence and contributions to the State of Delaware; two awards, in 2020 and 2019, from The American Prize; and the 2018 Pi Kappa Lambda Chamber Work Composition-Competition Commission. In 2022 she received the University of Delaware College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Scholarship Award.
Recent international festivals in which her music has been featured include Malta’s Victoria International Arts Festival, Brazil’s Festival Internacional Compositores de Hoje, Scotland’s Edinburgh International Arts Festival, and the International Double Reed Society conference in Thailand. Her compositions have been featured on documentaries and promotional videos; exhibited as music-video art in galleries including Philadelphia’s Crane Arts; utilized as underscoring to theatrical productions, including a production of Shakespeare's 'The Tempest' in Mumbai, India; and broadcast on American public radio (including 'Performance Today'), Canadian radio, Hong Kong radio, Swedish radio and the BBC. For the month of April 2023, she was the featured composer on Hong Kong Radio 4’s ‘The Classical and the Curious’. Published by Boosey & Hawkes, Theodore Presser, Southern Percussion and McKenna-Keddie, Barker’s works have been released on twelve recordings through the Naxos, Albany, New World Records, Composers Recordings Inc., Meyer Media, PnOVA and New Ariel labels. A further four recordings will be released through 2024.
Barker has been invited to present lectures on her works and composition masterclasses at festivals, conferences, universities and conservatories, in Malta, Hong Kong, Singapore, New Zealand, Australia and England, as well as throughout the United States and her native Scotland.
As a William Penn Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, she received the Ph.D. and Masters degrees in music composition. She received two Masters degrees in piano performance and music composition respectively from Syracuse University, and an Honors Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Glasgow in Scotland. In addition to composing, Barker is active as a collaborative pianist.
