Susan E. Barnes
Conductor, Teacher, Musician, Mentor
Dr. Susan Barnes is a conductor and educator in Southern California. She directs the choral and orchestral music at W. A. Carter High School in Rialto, California and serves as music director of The Sanctuary Choir at the Ontario First Church of the Nazarene. Susan is an active freelance violinist and violist in the community and frequently serves as a guest conductor, coach, and adjudicator for local youth, community, and semi-professional choirs and orchestras.
Conductor
Carter High School Orchestra
Carter High School Chamber Choir
On stage after conducting the San Bernardino County Honor Orchestra. Susan enjoys directing several school, church and community ensembles throughout Southern California. She appears regularly as a guest conductor for county and local district music festivals and is called to work as a clinician with local professional associations.
Sanctuary Choir and Orchestra Director
Dr. Barnes directs The Sanctuary Choir and Orchestra at the First Church of the Nazarene in Ontario, California, where she prepares and performs weekly choral anthems and special music. She is the Associate Director for Worship Music, collaboratively programming music and weekly service schedules for Sunday morning worship.
Christmas Cantata - 2017
One Small Child Arr. Tom Fettke
Walk Worthy by Joseph Martin
Sunday Morning Anthem
Teacher
Since 2004, Susan Barnes has taught choir and orchestra at Wilmer Amina Carter High School in Rialto, California. She especially enjoys taking her ensembles to participate in festival and community performances. Susan believes music is an integral part of education; it helps students make connections, think critically, and form judgements about personal and peer performances. Music naturally engages students and easily speaks to all learning modes.
Dr. Barnes taught at Ben F. Kolb Middle School from 1996 - 2004, directing an award-winning middle school marching band and color guard program.
Rialto, California
CHS String Orchestra - Deep Sea Fandango
by Deborah Baker Monday
SPRING TOUR - 2023
And we're off!
Visiting Balboa Park - San Diego
Carter High School String Orchestra - California Center for the Arts
Dr. Barnes takes her advanced music ensembles on annual tours around California. They represent Carter High School in state and regional festivals, community concerts, and educational exchanges. They have the opportunity to attend professional concerts and engage in musical and cultural activities. In this picture, the CHS String Orchestra students were on tour in San Diego and they attended a concert featuring the Queen's Cartoonists, an eclectic group of musicians from New York who perform the live soundtrack to cartoons and media on a screen. https://www.thequeenscartoonists.com/
Taking some time to rehearse on Shelter Island before our dinner cruise around the bay.
Visiting Point Loma Nazarene University
Working with Dr. Mansfield, music professor from PLNU
Choir Festival, University of Redlands November 2021
Virtual Spring Music Program May 2021
Dr. Barnes did not let the pandemic stop her from teaching and facilitating music performance. She and her students produced and full-length virtual spring program. Each student learned their part with the help of practice videos and recordings. They recorded themselves playing their part in their respective homes and Dr. Barnes compiled the videos to create an ensemble effect. It was a diligent collaborative effort for which Dr. Barnes and her Carter High School students from 2020 - 2021 are incredibly proud.
Musician
Susan works as a freelance musician, clinician, adjudicator, coach, and guest conductor around Southern California .
Raven Chacon was the first Native American to win the Pulitzer Prize for his composition, Voiceless Mass. Susan performed with musicians of the Orchestra Collective of Orange County and the Scripps College Music Department in Claremont, California to present the west coast premiere of Chacon's Voiceless Mass in October 2022.
Jackie Evancho
with Dr. Barnes, violin
Palm Desert, California
Fischer String Quartet, violin
San Diego, California
Music Clinic, brass instruments
Ontario, California
Wedding String Quartet, viola
Rancho Cucamonga, California
Orchestra Collective of Orange County, violin
Brea, California
Wedding Musician, violin
McCall, Idaho
Eastern Sierra Symphony, violin
Mammoth Lakes, California
Wedding Quartet, violin
Brundage Mountain, Idaho
Susan Barnes, Violin Recital
Susan Barnes, Special Music
Mentor
Mentor
Susan Barnes serves as a mentor teacher and has invited several students into her classroom to observe and practice music teaching strategies. Peijun Xu used her time in Dr. Barnes' classroom to study bowing techniques in young violinists. She documented her research in her master's thesis, Bowing for the Beginning Violin Student: A Review of Literature and Suggestions for Group and Individual Instruction.
Publications
Susan Barnes has contributed to the research of Dr. Lee Jenkins in the area of assessment and continuous improvement by implementing innovative testing strategies in her classroom. Through the use of dichotomous rubrics and random performance tests, Dr. Barnes empowers her students to take responsibility for their learning and become intrinsically motivated to achieve continual progress in their musical studies. See her Dichotomous Rubric for Small Group Music Performance on page 24 of Dr. Lee Jenkins' book, How to Create a Perfect School.
