Barbara Lister-Sink, EdD

Professional and Community Leadership Experience and Expertise

• Internationally-acclaimed pianist and pioneer leader in the field of injury-preventive keyboard technique; collaborated with some of the world’s most renowned performers, composers and conductors and in numerous music festivals throughout North America, Europe andAustralia
• Formerly keyboardist, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam
• Member, piano faculties, Eastman School of Music, Amsterdam Muziek Lyceum, Duke University and the Brevard Music Center
• Performed with the Harvard Chamber Players, the Rochester Society for Chamber Music and at the New Hampshire, Skaneateles, Brevard and Chautauqua summer music festivals
• Steinway Artist since 1977 and a previewer and reviewer for Oxford University Press
• Author of articles for national and international music trade journals, including the Piano Magazine, American Music Teacher and European Piano Teachers Association Piano Journal
• Local Arts manager, performing and promoting the highest quality musical activities and cross-disciplinary events

Health-Related and Health Leadership Experience and Expertise

I am acknowledged as a global leader in injury-preventive keyboard technique. My video/DVD,  “Freeing the Caged Bird
: Developing Well-Coordinated, Injury-Preventive Piano Technique,” won the distinguished 2002 Music Teachers National Association-Frances Clark Keyboard Pedagogy Award and was praised as, “A monumental work!” by pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy. I am a frequent presenter on keyboardists’ health and injuries at national and international conferences, including the Music Teachers National Association, National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, and International Society of Music Educators in Glasgow, Scotland, and the 2020 Virtual ISME Conference from Helsinki, Finland. Through my research-validated Lister-Sink Method©, 2016 TED X talk, hundreds of workshops at universities, conservatories, summer institutes, professional conferences and frequent articles in music journals, I have helped thousands of keyboardists from around the world remove technical obstacles to their musical development. In 2023, as a leader in best practices in neuroscience and music, I was invited to present at the Music & Mind Symposium, hosted by Atrium Wake Forest University School of Medicine. I was also chosen by Musical America Global as one of America’s “Top Professionals of 2018” who have contributed to the music profession as innovators, independent thinkers and visionary leaders.

Salem Through My Eyes

I love Salem. It has a special place in my heart. Salem is my second home. It is family. It is a loving, supportive, encouraging village of unique, dedicated students, faculty and staff passionate about teaching and learning. I love its physical beauty and history and its appreciation of music as a vitally important part of life. I especially love its centuries-old belief that all people, but especially women, deserve the finest education and the greatest respect. Salem empowers all of us to develop our best and truest selves.

Fun Facts

• I love creating and promoting beauty in its myriad forms, large and small. Music, art, poetry, Nature, the James Webb Telescope images. I have always maintained my sense of awe and wonder and gratitude for being alive!
• I love travelling and languages and getting to know other cultures from the inside out. I am also a visual artist, a sometimes writer and was a professional singer.
• I truly love helping pianists and organists worldwide overcome or avoid injuries and maintain their joy in music-making.
• I grew up on a farm and live out in the rolling foothills surrounded by all sorts wild and not-so-wild animals and nature —  all of which I try to protect.