Edwin Barker was appointed to the role nearly 50 years ago in 1976
Edwin Barker, the long-time principal double bassist of the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) has announced his retirement from the orchestra, after nearly 50 years of service.
Aged 22, Barker was the youngest principal of the orchestra at the time of his appointment in 1976. He had previously served as a member of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, after graduating from the New England Conservatory (NEC) with honours.
Barker embedded himself into the musical life of the orchestra and the Boston community with numerous notable performances. He inaugurated the BSO’s 100th anniversary season with performances of Concerto for Double Bass written by the orchestra’s former music director, Serge Koussevitzky. His other solo engagements included appearances at Seiji Ozawa Hall, Carnegie Recital Hall, and major universities and conferences throughout the world, as well as concerto performances with the Boston Classical Orchestra and the BSO in Boston and Europe.
In July 1995 he was chosen by the late Sir Georg Solti to lead the bass section of the United Nations’ Musicians of the World, an ensemble made up of prominent musicians from the world’s top orchestras.
A prolific recording artist, Barker’s solo album recordings include Three Sonatas for Double Bass, on Boston Records, James Yannatos’ Variations for Solo Contrabass, on Albany Records, and Concerti for Double Bass, on GM Recordings, which includes bass concertos by Gunther Schuller and Theodore Antoniou. His latest recording, BASSO PROFUNDO, features his own arrangement of Bach’s Cello Suite no.5, as well as Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Sonata op. 108 for solo double bass, and is due for release on Navona Records on 26 July 2024.
Barker studied double bass with Henry Portnoi at NEC. His other double bass teachers included Peter Mercurio, Richard Stephan, Angelo LaMariana and David Perleman. As an educator, Barker is an associate professor at Boston University College of Fine Arts, where he teaches double bass, orchestral techniques, and chamber music.
His other major teaching affiliations include the BSO’s Tanglewood Music Center where he is chairman of instrumental and orchestral studies, and at the National Orchestral Institute at the University of Maryland.
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