John Craig Barker

“Mr. Barker possesses a disciplined spontaneity that is the essence of classical musicianship” New York Newsday. A native of Mississippi, clarinetist John Craig Barker has enjoyed a rich and varied performance career. Within five years of beginning his studies at the age of thirteen he was receiving national attention and was winning top prizes in competitions throughout the country.

As winner of the Artists International Competition, Mr. Barker made his recital debut at Carnegie Hall. The New York Times wrote about this performance that “Mr. Barker is technically polished. His tone is perfect and well rounded; quick passage work holds no terror for him, and he shapes the music in all the right ways” Mr. Barker made his concerto debut in Mobile with the New Orleans Philharmonic after winning the 1983 Symphony Concerts of Mobile Young Artist Competition.

He was a prize winner in the International Clarinet Society’s competition in Denver and was the first place prize winner at the Klar-fest Competition in Baltimore, Maryland. Internationally, Mr. Barker has represented the United States as a finalist in both the Naumburg International Competition and the Jeunesses Musicales Belgrade Competition in Yugoslavia. Barker began his studies with Wilbur Moreland at the University of Southern Mississippi and is a graduate of The Juilliard School where he was the student of Leon Russianoff and Stanley Drucker. He was chosen to represent Juilliard internationally at both the Woche der Begegnung in Austria and at the Evian Festival in France. His extensive chamber music collaborations have included work with Jean-Pierre Rampal, Felix Galimir, Stephen Maxym, Jacob Lateiner, Albert Fuller, and most recently, the American String Quartet.

As an orchestral clarinetist he has performed under the batons of Otto Werner- Mueller, Zubin Mehta, Kurt Masur, James dePriest, Mstislav Rostropovich and Yehudi Menuhin among others. Mr. Barker has performed chamber music, in recital and as soloist with orchestra throughout North America and Europe. He has recorded for Angel, EMI, Musical Heritage Society and Nonesuch Records. In addition to performing as artist in residence at the Banff Center for the Arts and the Aspen Music Festival, Barker was for two years a participant in the National Endowment for the Arts Rural Residency program, taking classical music to the furthest reaches of southern Georgia.

Mr. Barker has performed and recorded with New York’s premier contemporary music ensemble Continuum, whose recent release on the Naxos label, The Music of Ruth Crawford Seeger, has received critical acclaim.

Mr. Barker is the principal clarinetist with the Gulf Coast Symphony where he holds the Graves endowed Chair, and has recently joined the faculty of the University of South Alabama. In July of 2009, Mr. Barker was appointed principal clarinetist of the Mobile Symphony Orchestra.