Associate Professor
D.Mus., Indiana University
Office: 815-753-8004
E-mail: gregbarrett@niu.edu
Web: http://www.niu.edu/~gbarrett
NIU Clarinet Cornucopia
Dr. Gregory Barrett, associate professor of clarinet and chamber music at Northern Illinois University, is a master teacher and performer. He has presented recitals and classes throughout the United States, and in Australia, Austria, China, Finland, and Japan. Dr. Barrett is a graduate of Northwestern University, SUNY-Buffalo, and Indiana University. Barrett takes special delight in the achievements of his students. In 2004, the premiere winner of the Northern Illinois University Concerto Competition was a member of Barrett’s clarinet studio.
Currently performing with the Chicago Sinfonietta and the Ars Viva Symphony, he has been bass clarinetist with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra and has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, as well as with numerous other orchestras in the Carolinas, Virginia, Illinois, Indiana, and Iowa. He has been a Buffet Crampon Artist-Clinician since 2000.
Inspired by the music of Jean Sibelius, Dr. Barrett has developed a wide-reaching interest in Finnish music and culture. The Finnish Ministry for Foreign Affairs sponsored Dr. Barrett's research in Finland to meet with contemporary composers of works for the clarinet. Resulting from this trip were Barrett's dissertation and The Finnish Clarinet, released by ALBA CDs, Finland.
Barrett frequently collaborates with composers in their new works. In July 2005 he twice performed Paul Moravec’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Tempest Fantasy under Moravec’s guidance at the Mammoth Lakes Chamber Music Festival, California.
Dr. Barrett is a contributor and reviewer for The Clarinet, the quarterly magazine of the International Clarinet Association (I.C.A.), and has performed, presented a paper, and/or judged the Young Artist Competition at every I.C.A. ClarinetFest® since 1998. As a composer and arranger, Barrett has written several works featuring the clarinet. OR-TAV Publishers has available his klezmer pieces for clarinet trio, clarinet choir, and clarinet solo with band. His reconstruction of Jean Sibelius's lost En Saga Septet is available from Breitkopf & Härtel, Wiesbaden, Germany. Dr. Barrett premiered the En Saga Septet with members of the Lahti (Finland) Sinfonia Chamber Ensemble in June 2003 in Vienna's Musikverein.