Dr. Charles Barber

Conductor & Artistic Director

Charles holds bachelor’s (Victoria), master’s (Stanford), and doctoral (Stanford) degrees in music. His teachers include Carlos Kleiber, Andor Toth, George Corwin (conducting); Jaroslav Karlovsky, Bernard Zaslav (viola); Frona Colquhoun, Paul Kling (violin); Leonard Ratner (analysis); George Houle (early music); and Marty Paich (arranging). Charles’ operatic, concert and Broadway repertoire numbers some 220 works.

He was assistant to Paich on projects with Linda Ronstadt, Carly Simon and Mel Tormé, and on Prince of Tides, Alive, Flatliners, Grand Canyon, The Fugitive, Dave, and Wyatt Earp. Today, he is curator of The Marty Paich Archive. Barber has conducted for Stan Getz, Dan Hicks, Francis Ford Coppola, and Sarah Vaughn, and on tour in South Korea, Singapore, Japan, Morocco and Spain. He also created the acclaimed Naxos recording series American Classics, and produced numerous CDs for that company.

Charles has been published by Oxford, Cambridge, Carnegie Hall, Carl Fischer, Rowman & Littlefield, and New Grove. His book, Lost in the Stars: The Forgotten Musical Life of Alexander Siloti, earned wide critical acclaim. Corresponding With Carlos: A Biography of Carlos Kleiber will be published in late 2010. Barber served as Music Advisor to the BBC in its award-winning film documentary set The Art of Conducting, and also contributed to its film production of The Art of Singing. In 2009 he conducted the BC premiere of Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis (Theresienstadt, 1944) for City Opera Vancouver. In 2010 he led the Canadian event premiere of Sumidagawa & Curlew River, in a rare double bill for City Opera.

“I never write letters of recommendation, so this is an exception. Charles Barber is a scholar and a conductor who adores and understands music. We have become friends, and he pretends to believe that I have taught him something.”

– Carlos Kleiber, 1997

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On 26 September 2009, the BBC broadcast a unique Radio 3 documentary, Who Was Carlos Kleiber? It featured four who knew him well:  Plácido Domingo, Christine Lemke-Matwey, Sir Peter Jonas, and Charles Barber. It offers rare insight, and a special look at the life and art of this incomparable maestro.

It may be heard at www.mediafire.com/?wn4lnykyqkk