CCA grad Kirsten Barker produces environmental opera
Kirsten Barker started studying the violin at 11 years old. Now, she’s graduating in violin performance and headed to the University of Illinois to begin graduate studies in musicology.
Barker auditioned for Utah State University’s violin program during her senior year of high school.
“I got kind of toward the end of high school and I was like, you know, I’m actually not ready to be done seriously studying violin,” Barker said. “I just wanted to spend all my time practicing. I had a study hall period in high school and I want to always end up like sneaking out to the practice rooms just to practice, when I should have been doing my math work.”
Like most college graduates, Barker quickly realized how much she had to learn.
“There’s so much technique to learn and so many excerpts and so much music,” Barker said. “And obviously perfection is going to be unattainable.”
While perfection is unattainable, Barker has worked hard to improve her violin technique and performance abilities.
Her violin instructor, Rebecca McFaul, revealed Barker’s unique love for learning. “Over a break, she’ll be discovering obscure gems of the repertoire and then I see her in January and she hands me a list with, like, 35 things she wants to play,” McFaul laughed as she told the story.
Barker’s drive to explore and learn has pushed her to pursue several incredible projects. During her time at USU, Barker has co-produced an opera with a friend in the performance program. To do this, Barker had to write several grants for funding, find a composer and write the text for the opera.
When the outbreak of COVID-19 got in the way of the opera’s premiere, Kirsten was undaunted. With help from her co-producer, Barker found a digital producer and found a way to record everything online. The opera was presented at research conferences and premiered online.
To McFaul, one of the best parts of this incredible endeavor was that “it was coming from such a sincere place of needing to create.”
That need to create is not limited to music. In 2018, Barker won best in the impact show for her final project in a class called Unveiling the Anthropocene. For the project, Barker created a life-size humpback turtle that was knitted and stuffed with 800 plastic bags.
Yet, Barker’s humility shines brighter than anything. Before this year, Barker believed her efforts weren’t impacting or useful to people. “As a performance major, I’m not doing anything, like I’m not saving the world, I’m just noodling around and my violin practice or for however many hours a day,” Barker said. But after completing her capstone project, Barker realized that her violin performances are useful and helpful for her research.
“There’s something very pure about her motivation to want to learn,” McFaul said. “I admire it and I’m fed by being in her midst.”
Emily White is a junior studying English and print journalism. She is currently serving as the senior writer for the Lifestyles section of the Statesman.
—emily.white@usu.edu