Conductor/NJYS Artistic Director
BARBARA H. BARSTOW, Artistic Director of NJYS, Conductor of the NJYS Youth Orchestra, Philharmonia (September 2000-January 2001), Junior Strings, and OSTE. Ms. Barstow is now in her 33rd year as organizer, developer and conductor of comprehensive music programs after having received degrees in music education from the University of Michigan and later from Temple University in viola performance. During the 1970s Ms. Barstow devoted herself to implementing public school orchestral programs in Dundee, Illinois and Bridgewater, New Jersey while maintaining a private studio. As past president of the New Jersey American String Teachers Association (ASTA) She has contributed articles on string pedagogy and orchestral conducting in various music trade journals.

During the 1990s she served for eight years as a consultant with Young Audiences of New Jersey, coordinating a major project to promote student recruitment for instrumental music study in the New Jersey public schools. Ms. Barstow frequently serves as an adjudicator at performance competitions, including the New Jersey Symphony Young Artists’ Concerto Competition, and the Teen Arts Festivals.

Ms. Barstow has been equally involved in developing music performance opportunities within her local community. In 1983, along with two music colleagues, she organized the Belle Mead Friends of Music, which continues to serve as a performance outlet for Central New Jersey amateur and professional musicians. In 1994 she was an inaugural member of the Board of Directors of the Montgomery Cultural Center (1860 House), where she served as Chairperson of its Performing Arts Committee, helping to organize a concert series for their initial season.

Ms. Barstow was an Assistant Professor at Westminster Choir College of Rider University where she taught string pedagogy and orchestral conducting. She was the founding Music Director and Conductor of the Westminster Community Orchestra. Ms. Barstow conducted the New Jersey Youth Symphony at Carnegie Hall in 1996, and the New Jersey Youth Orchestra at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in May 1999.