Jonathan Barnhart, Music Director
JONATHAN BARNHART, Music Director and Conductor, received the Master of Music degree from New England Conservatory of Music, with studies in voice, organ and choral conducting, and since has enjoyed a forty-year career as a valued member of the Boston classical music community.
The 2023-2024 season marks Mr. Barnhart’s thirtieth year with DCS, its longest serving Music Director, during which the ensemble has been critically noted for its “solid vocal heft,” “unanimous blend and wide dynamic compass,” and the programming as “intelligently thought-out.” He has led DCS in the local premieres of such major works as Karl Jenkins’ The Armed Man, Peteris Vasks’ Dona nobis pacem, Alexander Gretchaninov’s Liturgia Domestica, and This Sacred Ground, by American composer David Diamond. Under his direction the chorus has also toured Europe three times, with concerts in Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Rome, Lucca, Assisi, Riga, Tallinn, and St. Petersburg.
As a vocal soloist Mr. Barnhart has appeared with numerous organizations including Alea III, Boston Camerata, Cantata Singers, Ensemble Abendmusik, Musica Viva, and the Handel and Haydn Society, and has been praised by the Boston Globe for his “superb musicianship” (Stravinsky, Threni). He has been an Apprentice Artist with the Des Moines Metro Opera Company, and was, for ten years, a member of the Professional Chorus of the Opera Company of Boston. One of the longest tenured members, Mr. Barnhart performed with the Handel and Haydn Society for more than thirty years.
Concluding tenures of more than thirty years, Mr. Barnhart has recently retired as Organist and Choir Director of Congregation Mishkan Tefila, Chestnut Hill, and as Music Director of First Parish, Unitarian Universalist in Harvard Square, Cambridge. He has taught on the music faculties of Commonwealth School, Milton Academy, Boston College and the New England Conservatory Division of Continuing Education.
In addition to his performance activities, Mr. Barnhart was on the staff of the E. C. Schirmer Music company, with responsibilities including licensing, production, and marketing, and finally as Music Editor, working with many distinguished composers, including Randall Thompson, David Diamond, and Daniel Pinkham. Mr. Barnhart’s editions of choral and organ music are published by ECS Publishing (Mozart, Thompson), Galaxy Music (Vaughan Williams), and Thorpe Music (Gretchaninov, Thompson, and Skryabin).
