Home Biography

Barbra Bailey Bradley Biography

Barbra Bailey Bradley began piano instruction at age 5, and has been a professional musician all her life - touring as a supporting artist for various singers and instrumentalists, adjudicating music festivals,  concertizing, and teaching.   She studied harp in Graduate School at Indiana University, and then had a long hiatus before returning to it.  Barbra now lives in Rockville, Maryland, and freelances  in Washington, DC, Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia, including: performing annually in Harpers Ferry [WVA] during the Olde Tyme Christmas festivities; playing for weddings, receptions, parties, luncheons, dinners, teas, open houses, funerals, memorial services, and area concerts; harpist at Ireland’s Four Courts in Arlington, Virginia,; and teaching piano and harp at the National Cathedral School in Washington, DC. She recorded her first CD of her own harp arrangements – Straight from the Harp – in 2004, and published two books of harp solos, duos, and trios - Straight from the Harp, Volumes 1 and 2 - with fellow harpist Mimi McNeel in July 2005. Together she and Mimi are McBrad Publishing.  Barbra’s second CD – Harp-Felt – was completed in the fall of 2006, and contains her own harp compositions in addition to her arrangements of traditional tunes and music from the Baroque and Classic periods. In addition to solo work, she performs with the Heatherwood Harp Ensemble; and has created several well-received arrangements for their concerts. Two ensemble arrangements were premiered at the 2006 Washington Area Folk Harp Society Benefit Concert – one by Sue Richard’s Unsemble, and the other in the Grand Finale Ensemble.  In addition to her arrangements of traditional music and her own compositions – including a Sonata for solo Harp - she enjoys taking keyboard music from the Baroque and Classic periods and making it harp friendly. Barbra has given workshops and ensemble sessions geared to beginners at the Somerset Folk Harp Festival and the WAFHS Annual Getaway at Harpers Ferry   Her workshops include: You, Too, Can Arrange - I do; Harp for Beginners; Ensemble for Beginners – How To Do It; and Introduction to Finale – How to Make Your Music Look Good [in conjunction with Mimi McNeel.]