Raised in a music-loving family, Barbara Ulman began piano lessons at age seven, started collaborating with other musicians five years later, and has continued an active musical life ever since.
She graduated from Harvard/Radcliffe College, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with a combined concentration in psychology, anthropology, and sociology, while also studying piano chamber music at the nearby Longy School of Music. A summer course in Musicianship at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music spawned her interest in composing, just as she had begun her teaching career. After completing ten years of elementary school teaching, including classroom music, she moved to a small town in the foothills south of Yosemite National Park. In 1989 she completed a second B.A., concentrating in Music Theory and Composition, at California State University, Fresno.
Barbara now lives in Portland, Oregon. She continues to be an active chamber music player, for fun and for public performance. Her many years as choral singer, and also pianist for solo singers and for choruses, created a special affinity for the human voice. She composes art songs and music for chorus and for small instrumental ensembles.