Composer and pianist Barbara Wesby has extensive professional experience in music education, performance, and composing in the United States and in Central America. Her works for solo singers, chamber ensembles, band, and choir have been premiered in El Salvador, Costa Rica, and in the U.S. She has received commissions from various individual artists, choirs, and small ensembles to write pieces for specific occasions. She has been awarded several national prizes.

A resident of Staten Island, NY, since 1997, she has received 6 grants from the Council on the Arts & Humanities of Staten Island to write new works for local performing groups. The 2008 grant funded a new work for soprano, flute, and guitar based on the poetry of popular Spanish poet, Federico García Lorca, entitled La Guitarra. The 2009 grant funded the song cycle Patriot Dreams for soprano, clarinet, and piano based on historical and contemporary patriotic poetry, to be premiered in October 2009. She often collaborates with the performers in choosing the themes and harmonic language of her pieces.

Ms. Wesby teaches in the Music Department of Wagner College, Staten Island, and serves as the music director at St. Sylvester’s Church, Staten Island. Her husband, daughter, and son are professional musicians, involved in collegiate music, professional singing, and rock respectively.

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