Barbara Higbie

Barbara Higbie (born 1958) is a Grammy nominated, Bammy award winning pianist, composer, violinist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has played on over 65 CDs including 3 tunes on the recent Carlos Santana CD. A longtime Windham Hill recording artist, she has also recorded for Olivia/Second Wave records and Slow Baby Records. She resides in the San Francisco Bay Area with her family. folk, jazz, pop, and fusion singer-songwriter, noted for her highly melodic, jazz/folk piano performances. She has toured nationally and internationally since the early 1980s. An early recording artist on the Windham Hill record label, she formed and played with the group Montreux along with Darol Anger, Mike Marshall, Todd Phillips, and Michael Manring. She recorded a critically acclaimed album with singer teresa Trull in 1983 and again in 1998. Since 1990, Barbara Higbie has released a number of solo albums on the Windham Hill and Slow Baby labels. She is known as a versatile and soulful musician.

Born in Michigan and raised in Indiana, she spent several years as a teenager in Ghana with her family. She went to Mills College and also attended the Sorbonne in Paris. It was in Paris that she met Darol Anger and began a fruitful musical collaboration. Together they recorded the record Tideline (1982), one of the early successful records of Windham Hill. Two years later they led a group with three other musicians (Mike Marshall, Todd Phillips, and Andy Narrel) for the Montreux Jazz Festival. The concert was considered so successful that a recording made at the concert was released as a Windham Hill record (Live at Montreux–Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie Quintet) and a new group was formed. However, after two studio releases, Sign Language and Let Them Say, the group disbanded. Barbara occasionally collaborates with her Montreux colleagues.She has performed with Bonnie Raitt, Terry Riley, The Kronos Quartet, Jaron Lanier, Cris Williamson, Holly Near, Ferron.

Barbara Higbie has an active performing schedule. In August 2006, she participated in the Windham Hill 30th Anniversary Concert. She spent 18 months living in Hawaii with her family and moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area in June 2009. She is married to husband Wayne, and they have one daughter, Lena.

Partial discography

 * 1982 Tideline (Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie)
 * 1983 Unexpected (Teresa Trull/Barbara Higbie)
 * 1984 Live at Montreux (Darol Anger/Barbara Higbie Quintet)
 * 1986 Sign Language (Montreux)
 * 1988 Let Them Say (Montreux)
 * 1990 Signs of Life (solo record)
 * 1996 i Surrender (solo record)
 * 1998 Playtime (Barbara Higbie and Teresa Trull)
 * 2001 Variations on a Happy Ending (solo record)
 * 2003 Barbara Higbie's Interpretation of Carole King (solo record)
 * 2005 Best Of (compilation, 1982–2000)
 * 2007 Alive in Berkeley (solo record—live)