Today we’d like to introduce you to Molly Barth.
Hi Molly, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My voice is my flute, and with my flute I specialize in performing contemporary music. I thrive on curating events combining many disciplines of the arts. I have an affinity for commissioning new pieces, and have premiered hundreds of them. I am a co-founder and former member of the ensemble Eighth Blackbird, and with them I toured the world, recorded many albums, and won a Grammy Award. More recently, I am a core member of the Zohn Collective, a group of curious musicians who share a love of risk and exploration. We have collaborated with a puppet company and a cartoonist, have toured the world and record extensively.
I am fueled by my work as a teacher. As Associate Flute Professor at the Vanderbilt University Blair School of Music, I guide my students to become comprehensive flutists: skilled, flexible, bold musicians, able to think critically and speak to audiences.
I have been an adjudicator for some of the nation’s largest music awards, such as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Herb Alpert Music Award, and the MidAtlantic Arts International Travel Award.
As a recipient of the Vanderbilt Chancellor’s Faculty Fellowship, I have been making music videos, curating performances, and commissioning works for my “Together We” series.
Please visit https://www.mollybarth.com and https://www.youtube.com/c/MollyBarth/videos
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
I would rather turn this prompt into “opportunities for growth”. Everyone faces internal and external obstacles and challenges, some more severe than others. Recognizing that we all do the best with what we have creates a mindset in which each one of us can help others to be our fullest selves at any given time in our lives, whether we are in a time of prosperity or a time of suffering. With an abundance of love and sharing and community, life is much more fulfilling.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I play the flute, and though that in itself is quite important to me, I like thinking about how the flute and music relate to my values and to my community. This creates a brain space for me in which I imagine, and then realize, collaborations that are extremely fulfilling to me, and hopefully to my collaborators and to the audience as well! I work with two touring chamber music groups, both containing some of my best friends! Duo Chrome is a flute/violin duo, and the Zohn Collective consists of an array of instrumentalists and voice. Both groups focus on performances of newly written music composed by some of my favorite composers and friends. https://zohncollective.com
Are there any important lessons you’ve learned that you can share with us?
The most fun thing for me to do is to make music written by friends and performed with friends. Enabling environments in which this ethos can flourish is central to my artistic practice. I started a series called “Together We” in which I dream up collaborations, projects, events, and recordings in sometimes unexpected locations that nourish my inner soul and hopefully do the same for those surrounding me. https://www.mollybarth.com/together-we
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.mollybarth.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barthmolly/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/molly.barth.3
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/MollyBarth/videos
- Other: https://blair.vanderbilt.edu/bio/molly-barth/
