About Barbara Lister-Sink

BARBARA LISTER-SINK, internationally acclaimed pianist and teacher, is a graduate
of Smith College and holds the coveted Prix d’Excellence from the Utrecht Conservatory, and an Ed.D. from Columbia University. A former member of the Artist Faculty of the Eastman School of Music, she has collaborated with some of the world’s most distinguished performers, composers, and chamber ensembles. She has performed with the Harvard Chamber Players, the Rochester Society for Chamber Music, and at the New Hampshire, Skaneateles, Brevard and Chautauqua summer music festivals.  Formerly keyboardist for the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, she has also taught on the piano faculties of the Amsterdam Muziek Lyceum, Duke University, and the Brevard Music Center and is Director of the School of Music and the Music Graduate Program at Salem College, Winston-Salem, NC. Her piano teachers include Margaret Mueller, Clemens Sandresky, Edith Lateiner-Grosz, John Duke, Harold Rubens, and Guido Agosti.

As a teacher, Dr. Lister-Sink is acknowledged as a global leader in injury-preventive keyboard technique. Her video/DVD Freeing the Caged Bird
– Developing Well-Coordinated, Injury-Preventive Piano Technique won the distinguished 2002 Music Teachers National Association-Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award and was praised as “A monumental work!” by Vladimir Ashkenazy. A frequent writer for peer-reviewed music journals, she has served on the Editorial Committee of The American Music Teacher, is a contributing author of A Symposium for Pianists & Teachers, and is on the National Wellness Committee of the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy (NCKP)/Frances Clark Center for Piano Pedagogy. Dr. Lister-Sink has been featured artist or clinician in over 20 Music Teachers National Association state conventions. Her frequent national and international appearances as performer, researcher or clinician include numerous Music Teachers National Association (MTNA) and NCKP conventions; over 20 state MTNA conferences; 2010 Piano Texas/Cliburn Institute International Piano Academy; 2013 New South Wales Piano Teachers’ Festival in Sydney, Australia; Performing Arts Medicine Association 2015 Annual Conference; 2015 and 2017 National Keyboard Pedagogy Conference; and the 2017 International Society for Music Education in Glasgow, Scotland.

Through her DVD, research, intensive training workshops, academic programs, and numerous appearances at universities, conservatories, and festivals, Dr. Lister-Sink has dedicated her life to helping thousands of keyboardists worldwide remove technical obstacles and enhance musicality. Her own playing is an eloquent demonstration of the marriage of technical freedom and musical artistry.