Here is what you gather about Barbara moments into being with her - whether in a chamber music coaching, in the audience, or in conversation with her, eyes aglow with her rapturous love of music: there is no end to the belief she has in those around her, in music, and in the great, life-affirming things that happen when people make music together.

I am 19, and I have just left my Music Theory III class in a shroud of ignominy after the teacher invited me to leave (emphasis very pointedly on the italicization). I skip down the second floor of the Bibbins building, defiant, triumphant, and even think I glimpse — can it be? (No, it can’t) — a faint whiff of sunshine falling into the huge glass diamonds of the windows facing Tappan Square.