"An exuberant virtuoso on numerous instruments in many musical styles, as well as the possessor of a lovely singing voice and a stage presence like a ray of sunshine, Barbara Higbie combines technical brilliance and pure joie de vivre in her music."
Tonight's show gives the multi-faceted Barbara a chance to shine forth with her talents on piano, fiddle, guitar, and ukulele, as she performs material old and new, including selections from her upcoming CD.
Barbara's rich background includes classical piano and violin studies, immersion in the musical culture of Ghana, ground-breaking work with the jazz-folk-bluegrass band Montreux and with Terry Riley, and acclaimed collaborations with singer Teresa Trull. Her unique compositions bring together jazz, folk, classical, African, Brazilian, and Celtic elements to create music that is lyrical, rhythmically playful, and harmonically inventive.
A Grammy-nominated, Bammy award winning singer-songwriter, pianist, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Barbara Higbie has performed on more than 65 albums, including 3 songs for Carlos Santana’s 2007 release. She is known as a vibrant, inventive performer and composer, bringing out the best in a musical group and audience.
Barbara has recorded for Windham Hill Records since 1982, with 11 recordings to her credit as well as contributions to 10 compilations that have sold in the millions. As a co-founder of the acoustic super group, "Montreux" she recorded live at the Montreux Jazz Festival a genre bending acoustic sound that has become synonymous with Northern California.
Her 2 CD's with singer-songwriter Teresa Trull have won critical acclaim and a large nationwide following. The Washington Post named her first solo outing “Top Ten of the Year”.
Barbara has performed with Bonnie Raitt, Terry Riley, the Kronos Quartet, Cris Williamson, Bobby McFerrin, Michael Hedges, Greg Brown, Ferron, Teresa Trull, Vicki Randle, Amy Ray, Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Rosalee Sorrels, Terry Garthwaite and many others.
Raised in Indiana, at age 13 her family moved to Ghana, West Africa where she studied with master drummer Mustafa Tetty Addy. After musical studies at Mills College and a sojourn performing in Paris, she returned to West Africa with a Watson Fellowship to collect traditional music. Recording and touring internationally for over 20 years, she now resides in Berkeley , CA with her husband and 5 year old daughter. As of fall 2007, she has just completed a 40 city national tour and has a new solo release “Alive in Berkeley".
