Hixson-Lied Professor of Clarinet Diane Barger has been named the new pedagogy chair of the International Clarinet Association (ICA). The position was awarded to her by the ICA Board of Directors, and her appointment will be from 2016-2018.
As pedagogy chair, Barger will write articles for the quarterly scholarly journal of the ICA, “The Clarinet” and will oversee and pursue teaching-related submissions to the journal each cycle, manage the new “Pondering Pedagogy” section of the online web resource of the ICA and work with the artistic directors of the ICA to create interesting panel discussions related to pedagogy for annual conferences.
She is currently working on her first article for “The Clarinet” for the December issue, titled “Collaborative Teaching and Learning in the Studio.”
“I am so deeply honored to have been selected for this prestigious position in the International Clarinet Association,” Barger said. “I have already established a ‘Pondering Pedagogy’ section on the ICA website and submitted my first article for the December issue of the journal, where I share my Collaborative Teaching and Learning initiative I developed over the last eight years at UNL. I look forward to what the next two years have in store for me as Pedagogy Chair.”
Barger has been at the University of Nebraska since 1994. She is a member of the Moran Woodwind Quintet, one of the most active and visible quintets in the Midwest. She is principal clarinet of Lincoln’s Symphony Orchestra.
She has served as past artistic director of ICA’s ClarinetFest 2012 and is past treasurer of ICA (2000-2010). She also served as coordinator of ICA’s High School Solo Competition (2003-2005).
Barger is an active soloist and chamber musician, master class clinician and adjudicator throughout the U.S. She received her Doctor of Music and Bachelor of Music degrees from the Florida State University. She received her Master of Music from Northwestern University.
With the Amicitia Duo, a clarinet duo with Denise Gainey from the Univeristy of Alabama-Birmingham, Barger toured Florida and Kansas in the 2015-2016 academic year and will be touring Texas this Fall.
A specialist in the genre of operatic fantasies for clarinet based on Vincenzo Bellini operas, Barger can be heard as a featured soloist on the ICA's 1998 Recording Project compact disc in a performance of Domenico Mirco's "La Sonnambula" Fantasia for clarinet and piano. In August 2012, Barger published a CD of works by Scott McAllister titled BlingBling, as well as 13 editions of Bellini operatic fantasies by various 19th-Century composers, all of which are available through Potenza Music. With Hixson-Lied Professor of Piano Mark Clinton and Associate Professor of Bassoon Jeff McCray, Barger recorded a CD of works for clarinet, bassoon and piano by William Hurlstone and Bill Douglas in the summer of 2016 that will soon be published by Potenza Music.
In 2001, she received the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts’ Distinguished Teaching Award and has received numerous teaching awards by the UNL Parents Association and Teaching Council.
In addition to her work as a collegiate educator, Barger actively works with pre-college clarinetists at Cornerstone Academy of Clarinet, L.L.C., where she serves as founder and professor of clarinet.
For more information on the ICA, visit their website at http://clarinet.org/.