Barbara Harbach, born on February 14, 1946, in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, is an American composer, educator, and organist. She studied music at Penn State University, earning a BA, followed by an MMA at Yale and a doctorate in composition from the Eastman School of Music. Her first published composition was "Praise Him with the Trumpet" (1977) for choir and pipe organ. Harbach's career included professorships at Washington State University, the University of Wisconsin–Oshkosh, and the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where she served as a professor starting in 2004. She founded Vivace Press in 1989 to publish music by underrepresented composers and co-founded Women of Note Quarterly in 1993, serving as its editor. Harbach's notable works included three symphonies: "Veneration for Orchestra" (2004), "One of Ours – a Cather Symphony", and "Sinfonietta for string orchestra". Her opera "O Pioneers!", based on Willa Cather’s novel, received its world premiere in 2009.
