Edwin Barker

Edwin Barker is an American double bass player who graduated from the New England Conservatory. He is Principal Double Bass with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Associate Professor of Music at Boston University College of Fine Arts.

Barker graduated with honors from the New England Conservatory in 1976, where he studied double bass with Henry Portnoi. That same year, while a member of the Chicago Symphony, he was appointed at age twenty-two to the position of principal bassist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Barker is a sought-after solo/ensemble performer and musician, having performed all around in the world in North America, Europe and, Asia.

He is a frequent guest performer with the Boston Chamber Music Society in Boston's Jordan Hall. Barker continues to tour and perform internationally with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and has recorded with both groups and Collage, a Boston-based contemporary music ensemble. He is also an accomplished editor, having done his own edition of the bass parts for Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 31 and Gustav Mahler's Symphonies No. 1 and No. 2 at the online publisher Ovation Press.

In July 1995, he was chosen by Maestro Sir Georg Solti to lead the bass section of the United Nations' orchestra "Musicians of the World." Barker performed the world premiere of James Yannatos' Bass Concerto (which was written especially for him) with Alea III and subsequently with Collage. He was the featured soloist at the New England premiere of Gunther Schuller's Bass Concerto, conducted by the composer, with the Boston Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra. Mr. Barker's major teaching affiliations include the Tanglewood Music Center, Boston University and the New England Conservatory of Music.

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