WE ARE
Committed to Opera
Barbara Jöstlein Currie joined the Met Orchestra in 1998, as Assistant Horn. A year later, she won the 4th Horn position, which she has held since1999. Growing up in Chicago and studying with former CSO musicians Phil Farkas and Nancy Fako, she left for New York to study with former Met Principal Horn, Julie Landsman, at the Juilliard School on a full scholarship. When she was a sophomore, she was the runner-up in the Third Horn audition with the San Diego Symphony which led to the opportunity to spend a year with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra as their Associate and Third Horn.
Barbara has performed frequently at the Hollywood Bowl with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and with the San Diego symphony during the summer season, as well as playing one complete season as Second Horn with the San Diego Synohony.
Barbara is a longtime professor of Horn at the Bard College Conservatory and has been on faculty at the Manhattan School of Music pre college division and Mannes Prep division.
She has has given master classes at many universities such as Colburn, Indiana University, Cincinnati Conservatory, University of North Carolina, University of Illinois as well as in Japan and Europe as well as for many international festivals such as Youth Orchestra of the Americas, LessonFace and for Marcus Bonna’s Lyra Bragança during the pandemic.
Barbara is also active in the recording industry, playing both horn and Wagner tuba in movies such as True Grit and Contagion, and with musicians such as Tony Bennett, Lady Gaga and Sting, and has also records soundtracks in both NYC and Los Angeles.
Barbara has received a patent for her new company, Brass Witch (BrassWitch.com), an accessory for brass players she invented to attach pencils to their instruments using strong neodymium magnets. She has a patent pending for a new magnetized stylus/pencil combo called Styl Witch.
Barbara currently plays an Alexander 1106.
Barbara’s brother, Thomas Jöstlein, is the Associate Principal Horn of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra after having been Assistant Horn of the New York Philharmonic.
Photo by Joan Argemí
