In Celebration of the Human Voice - The Essential Musical Instrument

Ysaye Barnwell

Born: 1946. Living in: Washington, D.C.
Ysaye M. Barnwell was born in New York City and has lived in Washington, D.C., for over 40 years. Her life experiences have taken her down three major paths. She began in music at the age of 2, studying violin for 15 years with her father and majoring in music in high school. She sang in a choir while in junior high school and then in college. In 1976, she founded the Jubilee Singers at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington, D.C. It was, there in 1979, that Bernice Johnson Reagon witnessed her as a singer and a Sign Language interpreter and invited her to audition for Sweet Honey In The Rock.

Barnwell is also a Speech Pathologist with the Bachelors, Masters (SUNY, Geneseo 1963-68) and Ph.D. (University of Pittsburgh 1975) degrees and was a professor in the College of Dentistry for over a decade. In 1981 she completed post-doctoral work and earned the Master of Science in Public Health

Member of: Sweet Honey in the Rock

Media Articles
Washington Post, A serendipitous life: Ysaye Barnwell and the healing power of music

Arrangements | Trax CDs | Ysaye Barnwell Videos

Sheet Music Series
Choral Music of Ysaye Barnwell

Trax Recordings

Ysaye Barnwell : Wanting Memories - Parts CD

The shimmer of the water can be heard as the choir opens this piece. The beautiful melody rises above to tell the tender story of this love song. Listen to the piece come alive in the recording created by the high school choir that commissioned this piece.