Sue Barber serves as professor of bassoon at James Madison University and as artist-faculty at the Brevard Music Festival. An active freelance bassoonist, she performs with The City Music Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, and North Charleston Pops! Orchestra. She has also performed regionally with Opera on The James, the Richmond Symphony Orchestra, the Roanoke Symphony, and Opera Roanoke. She has also performed and presented master classes throughout the United States, Europe, Brazil, and China. She has also served as a visiting professor at The Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University, teaching applied bassoon and presenting master classes.
An active solo and chamber musician, past performances and presentations include events at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, International Double Reed Society Conventions, Virginia Music Educator’s Annual Conferences, The Midwest Band and Orchestra Clinic, The Meg Quigley Vivaldi Competition and Bassoon Symposium, the International Alliance for Women in Music’s Annual Concert of Chamber Music by Women at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC, and The National Flute Association Conventions in Washington, DC and New York, New York. She has also appeared numerous times as a soloist and chamber musician at The Brevard Music Festival. She is a founding member of The Friendly City Chamber Players, established in 2015, a classical chamber music ensemble working to create a new classical experience for both the performer and listener.
As an orchestral musician, Sue has performed with many of the leading artists of our time in noted venues such as The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center. She is currently principal bassoon of the City Music Cleveland Chamber Orchestra and associate principal bassoon of the Brevard Music Center Orchestra. She has served as assistant principal bassoon of the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, principal bassoon of the Natchez Opera, principal bassoon of the Acadiana Symphony Orchestra, principal bassoon of The Hartford Symphony Orchestra, The Connecticut Opera, and The Sarasota Opera. Internationally, she served as assistant principal bassoon of Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia (Spain). She has also appeared with the New Haven Symphony, Rhode Island Philharmonic, New World Symphony, Florida West Coast Symphony Orchestra (Sarasota), Santa Fe Chamber Orchestra, and participated in the National Repertory Orchestra Festival, and the Banff and Sarasota Chamber Music Festivals. Sue earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Bassoon Performance from the Crane School of Music in Potsdam in New York, a Master of Music degree from The Juilliard School in New York, and a Doctor of Musical Arts degree from Louisiana State University.