James Barnes

Associate Professor of Music (1990)

Education

• B.A., State University of New York at Albany
• M.M., Juilliard School
• M.S., Lehigh University

Contact

Email: barnesj@moravian.edu
Phone: 610-861-1672
Office: Hurd Campus, Brethren's House, Room 303
Personal website: home.moravian.edu/users/music/mejeb01/

Areas of Research and/or Expertise

Band and orchestra performance and repertoire; conducting; music technology; contemporary classical music

Biography

James Earl Barnes (b. 1950) is a tenured Associate Professor and Director of Instrumental Music at Moravian University where he conducts the Moravian University Wind Ensemble and the Moravian University Greyhound Marching Band. Barnes has served as Chair of he Department of Music from 2001-2004 and 2007-2011, Chair of the Human Subjects Internal Review Board, and, in 2000-2001, Director of Computing Across the Curriculum for the University. While at Moravian, Barnes directed the Pennsylvania Youth Honors Concert Band and Jazz Ensemble for 6 years, the MUWE Jazz Ensemble for 5 years, and the Moravian University Community Orchestra for 5 years. He is also a past director for the Emmaus Lion’s Club Men’s Chorus. Barnes holds degrees from the State University of New York at Albany, The Juilliard School, and Lehigh University, with classical and jazz studies at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and L’Institute des Hautes Études Musicale (Switzerland). Barnes teaches courses in conducting, musicianship, and music technology.

From 1980 to 1998, Barnes was a free-lance cimbalom player (Hungarian hammered dulcimer). He performed as soloist with a number of orchestras and ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Baltimore, Montréal, Atlanta, Toronto, and NHK (Tokyo) symphonies, the Concerto Soloists of Philadelphia, Boston Musica Viva, ALEA III, Speculum Musicae, and the Canadian Chamber Ensemble. In addition to serving as a guest conductor and an adjudicator for concert bands, marching bands, choruses, orchestras, and jazz bands across the nation, Barnes was a performer on recordings of band music from the eighteenth century, as well as works by Persichetti (Grammy nomination), Kodaly, Debussy, and Stravinsky. He has conducted and taught at Temple University, Lehigh University, Muhlenberg College, The New School of Music (Philadelphia), Mercy College/Westchester Conservatory (NY), Holyoke Community College (MA), Keene State College (NH), and Kinhaven Music School (VT).