Artistic Director

Barbara Pickhardt has had a multi-faceted career: teaching, conducting, composing, arranging and performing as a pianist and harpsichordist. She earned undergraduate and graduate degrees with honors from both the University of Minnesota and Westminster Choir College (Princeton, NJ), where she received the Ruth and Raymond Young Award in Composition. She has been the artistic director and conductor of the choral ensemble Ars Choralis since 1976, leading the chorus in traditional as well as out- of-the-ordinary choral performances; from Faure's Requiem to the ongoing Messengers of Peace concerts; from Orf’s Carmina Burana to Music in Desperate Times: Remembering the Women’s Orchestra of Birchenau. 

Recognized as one of the Hudson Valley’s foremost choral directors and keyboard artists, Pickhardt is a founding members of the Woodstock Chamber Players. She toured the Northeast as the ensemble’s pianist and harpsichordist, and also joined the Linden Piano Trio for their Germany/Austria tour. She has been affiliated with the Woodstock Chamber Orchestra since its inception as harpsichordist, pianist and supporting choral conductor. Pickhardt has led the choral music department at SUNY Ulster where she also taught applied piano.

In 1995 Pickhardt founded the Hudson Valley Youth Chorale and was the artistic/executive director of the chorus for the following 13 years. As a member of the Maverick Board of Directors she organized its Children’s Concert Series and Summer Prelude Concerts. Since 2000, she has teamed with lyricist Johanna Hall to write operas commissioned by  St.Gregory’s Church in Woodstock NY for its Woodstock Cycle. Pickhardt was the assistant music director/pianist of Overlook Lyric Opera and worked with composer Robert Starer as pianist and stage director for his new operas, performed in the Hudson Valley and in NY City.

Mother of cellist Erica Pickhardt and pianist Kristen Tuttman, Barbara Pickhardt maintains an active piano studio in her home in Woodstock, NY where she also continues to create choral programs, compose and arrange choral music.