Barbary Grant began her professional music career at age 11, accompanying private voice lessons and a choir. She went on to earn her Bachelor of Music degree in Composition from Cal State Fullerton in 1987. She continued in the Masters program in Piano Performance at Cal State Long Beach and studied Film Scoring at UCLA. Barbary has over fifteen years of teaching experience. She teaches harp and piano at Sweetmusik Studios in Cupertino. She has directed the Portola Valley Homeschool Choir since 2003.Eleven years ago, Mrs. Barbary bought an Irish harp and taught herself to play. Since then she has recorded four CDs of traditional Celtic music. Her children’s album – Celtic for Kids – won a Parents’ Choice Award in 2002. She sings in all three of the Gaelic languages: Irish, Scots Gaelic, and Manx. Her concert calendar and sound clips from her recordings are available at http://www.barbarygrant.com.
Four days a week, Mrs. Barbary works as a hospital musician at Stanford University Medical Center and El Camino Hospital. With wheels strapped to the bottom of her harp, she roams around the hospitals, playing soothing music for patients and their families everywhere from the ICUs to the newborn nurseries.
Mrs. Barbary lives in Santa Clara with her husband Tony, their 12-year-old daughter Samantha, and 6-year-old twins, Naomi and Nicole. She loves to practice her cello and to read, but hates brussel sprouts and cleaning house. Her favorite animals are orcas and okapis and her favorite color is red.
Mrs. Barbary has jumped out of an airplane, walked barefoot through live coals, and tended bar in a café in Paris (before she knew any French!). She looks forward to having more adventures with her Homeschool Choirs!
Mrs. Barbary then . . . .
. . . . and now (2006)
Photo by Luke Girard