Stephen Barr is Assistant Professor of Theory and Director of Choirs at Slippery Rock University, where he teaches music theory, eartraining, vocal conducting and choral methods, and conducts the university choir, chamber singers, and women's choir. He holds music degrees from Westminster College (BM), the University of South Florida (MM), and West Virginia University (DMA), where he was awarded a prestigious Swiger Fellowship. His principal teachers have included John Beall, David Taddie, James Lewis, and Douglas Starr (composition), as well as Kathleen Shannon, Don Wilcox, and William Wiedrich (conducting).

Stephen is an active composer working in a variety of mediums, from modern art music for choirs, bands, orchestras, and chamber groups to contemporary film score and music for games in orchestral and electronic styles. His concert music has been performed by the Florida Orchestra (Tampa, FL), American Academy of Conducting Orchestra and Aspen Contemporary Ensemble (Aspen Music Festival, CO), the West Virginia University choral and instrumental ensembles (Morgantown, WV), the Three Rivers Choral Society (Pittsburgh, PA), and the Westminster College Wind Symphony (New Wilmington, PA). He has also arranged and orchestrated works for the Imperial Symphony Orchestra (Lakeland, FL) and the Sarasota Ballet and Florida West Coast Symphony (Sarasota, FL).

Stephen has been a resident at the Atlantic Center for the Arts, working with composer Robert Ashley, and most recently attended the Susan and Ford Schumann Film Scoring Program at the Aspen Music School and Festival in Aspen, CO, where he studied film scoring with Thomas Haines, John Corigliano, Jack Smalley, and Jeff Rona. Most recently, his orchestral work Winter Sky was chosen by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and Composer-in-Residence Christopher Theofanidis to be performed by the orchestra in a public reading session.

Stephen is also an accomplished baritone singer and has performed roles in various theatrical productions including The Threepenny Opera and Fiddler on the Roof. As an undergraduate, he also traveled to Italy where he was a featured performer on a special inaugural concert for the reopening of the Teatro Operino in Amelia, Umbria.

For more information on Stephen and a list of compositions, please visit www.stephenbarr.com.