08) Barry Singer

Born in Weston, Connecticut in 1957, Barry is Choral Music Director for the Philharmonic Society of Arlington, conducting the Arlington-Belmont Chamber Chorus since 1994, and the Arlington-Belmont Chorale since 2004.Barry received his degree in Music Composition from Berklee College in 1980, where he studied composition with John Bavicchi and Jeronimas Kačinskas, and conducting with George Monseur. Over the last 25 years he has specialized in composing for chorus, but continues to write instrumental works as well. In addition to original compositions, he has arranged and orchestrated popular and concert music for a number of performers, and composed original music for the off-Broadway play, Looking for Billy Haines, which ran at the Lion Theatre in New York in 2010.

As a conductor, in addition to his work with the Philharmonic Society of Arlington, Barry has served as Chorus Master for Concord's Opera51 (2013 - 2017) and as choral conductor for the Appalachian Mountain Club Mountains and Music program. He has served as Interim Music Director for the First Parish Church in Needham, Congregation Shalom in Chelmsford, and the Winchester Unitarian Society, and has been a guest conductor for the Carlisle Chamber Orchestra, Paul Madore Chorale Summer Sing Series, and the M.I.T Gilbert and Sullivan Players. Musical theatre is of particular interest to Barry, and he has been active as a music director in this area for many years. In addition, he was a founder, member, and co-leader of Serious Fun, an award-winning contemporary a cappella group.

On the instrumental side, Barry received flute and piano lessons from an early age, and added saxophone, clarinet, and electric bass while in his teens. Currently, Barry is an active piano accompanist, on staff at several Boston-area school systems, and for many years has been the summer musician at St. Peter's Episcopal Church in Weston. Other current performing activities include frequent work as a keyboard and woodwind player on stage and on recordings for local songwriters, in the orchestra pit of several area theatre groups, as a freelance jazz pianist, and as a piccoloist with professional parade band The Boston Windjammers. For many years Barry played and sang as a member of the popular Boston-area dance band Firefly, and currently appears as a regular guest with the blues-rock band Becky and the Swinging Bards.

Barry discovered singing while in high school, and studied flute and voice while at Berklee College of Music. From 1983-1998 he sang with the Boston Symphony Orchestra's Tanglewood Festival Chorus in numerous performances and recordings with the BSO and Boston Pops Orchestra. Barry served as baritone soloist with the Congregation Shirat Hayam of the North Shore from 2002-2010, and for many years was baritone soloist and section leader at St. Peter's Church in Weston.

Barry recently retired from the faculty at the Music Maker School in Acton, but maintains a private studio in Arlington where he teaches piano, music theory and composition, and provides audition coaching.