Pianist Barbara (Barbie) Noyes can be found collaborating with musicians in a variety of genres from chamber music to opera, orchestra, and musical theater, performing at renowned venues such as Carnegie’s Weill Hall, the Granada Theater, Boettcher Concert Hall, among others. She has received fellowships at Music Academy of the West, Aspen Music Festival, the Saarburg Chamber Music Festival, and the Collaborative Piano Institute and has also served as collaborative piano faculty at the Meadowmount School of Music in upstate New York.
Alongside mezzo-soprano Claire McCahan, Noyes co-founded Horizon Duo, a voice-piano duo dedicated to the celebration of American art song and creative programming of contemporary and classic repertoire. Together, Horizon Duo have been finalists in competitions such as the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards (NATSAA), the Federation of Art Song competition, the Franz Schubert & Modern Music Lied Duo competition in Graz, Austria, and was recently awarded Grand Prize in the Doug Davis Composition and Performance competition. Additional contemporary music projects include the forthcoming recordings Origins: Music by Women of the Americas with violinist Jonathon Winter and an album of contemporary American art songs for soprano, cello, and piano with Sohap Ensemble.
Noyes holds Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in collaborative piano from the University of Colorado Boulder where she studied with Margaret McDonald and Alexandra Nguyen. She received her Bachelor of Music in composition from Willamette University and completed additional studies in piano performance and French at the Institut Catholique and the Sorbonne Université in Paris as well as IRCAM’S ManiFeste summer academy for composers. Noyes previously held faculty positions at Southern Illinois University and the University of Colorado Boulder and is currently Instructor of Collaboration at Vanderbilt University.