Barbara Noyes
Dr. Barbara Noyes of Golden, Colorado is a collaborative pianist, vocal coach, and educator. A versatile performer, Noyes can be found collaborating with musicians in a wide variety of genres including duo works, chamber music, opera, orchestral ensembles, new music ensembles, and choral music. Together with mezzo-soprano Claire McCahan, Noyes formed Horizon Duo, a voice-piano duo dedicated to creative programming focusing on American art song and other contemporary programmatic contemplations. In 2022, Horizon Duo won first prize at the National Association of Teachers of Singing Artist Awards (NATSAA) competition in New York City and will compete in the Franz Schubert & Modern Music Lied Duo competition in Graz, Austria.
Noyes received fellowships to study at both Aspen Music Festival as well as Music Academy of the West where she studied with Jonathan Feldman. During her two summers in Santa Barbara, Noyes was a finalist in the Duo Competition, performing twentieth and twenty-first century masterpieces with Chas Barnard, cello and Colin Benton, tuba. In 2018 she made her Carnegie Hall debut with oboist Kristen Weber at Weill Recital Hall. An ardent lover of contemporary repertoire, Noyes’s doctoral thesis project culminated in a recorded album of André Previn’s music for voice and piano duo, bringing to the concert hall Previn’s unheralded art song library.
Noyes received her Doctor of Musical Arts and Master of Music degrees in Collaborative Piano at the University of Colorado Boulder, studying with Margaret McDonald and Alexandra Nugyen. She previously earned a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Willamette University where she studied composition with John Peel and piano and chamber music with Anita King. An avid language-learner, Noyes pursued French language and cinema studies in Paris at the Sorbonne Université and the Institut Catholique and later, innovation in music technology at IRCAM’s ManiFeste summer academy for composers. Noyes currently holds the position of collaborative pianist at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale.
