BARABARA J. OWEN

 Born in Utica, New York on January 25, 1933, Barbara Owen earned a bachelor of music degree from Westminster Choir College in 1955 and a master of music degree in musicology from Boston University in 1962. She pursued advanced study in Europe at the North German Organ Academy and the Academy of Italian Organ Music. In 1963 she began a 40-year tenure as director of music at the First Religious Society of Newburyport. Massachusetts. In addition, she was a voicer for C.B. Fisk, Inc. from 1961 to 1979.

As a young woman in her early 20s during the 1950s, Ms. Owen defined and mapped a new sub-discipline in American musical scholarship: the study of Anglo-American organs, organ design, and organ music. In 1956, she and a handful of other American organ enthusiasts founded the Organ Historical Society; she became the founding president and served in several capacities. She was honored with the OHS Distinguished Service Award in 1988, and was designated an honorary member in 1998 in recognition of her contributions both to the society and to scholarship. The American Musical Instrument Society honored her with its prestigious Curt Sachs Award in 1994. She served the American Guild of Organists as regional councilor and chapter dean and was a trustee of the Methuen Memorial Music Hall. She was the founder and initial curator for the Organ Library of the Boston Chapter of the American Guild of Organists, located at Boston University.

Few have served and influenced a profession in as many aspects as Barbara Owen. Throughout seven decades she was an organ builder, organ restorer and preserver, researcher, author, advocate, consultant, musician, music editor, lecturer, hymn writer, and librarian. In addition to a constant flow of articles in scholarly journals, her books include The Organ in New England, E. Power Biggs: Concert Organist, The Mormon Tabernacle Organ: An American Classic, The Registration of Baroque Organ Music, The Organ Music of Johannes Brahms, The Great Organ at Methuen, and Pioneers in American Organ Music 1860 – 1920: The New England Classicists. Her work is internationally known and respected, and she is generally regarded both here and abroad as one of the top half-dozen scholars in her field.                                      

Perhaps most characteristic of Barbara Owen was her unfailing generosity. She selflessly advised and aided other researchers with her encyclopedic knowledge about her subject, and the voluminous files of material she had collected. Over the years, she inspired and encouraged countless other music historians and fostered scholarship in American church music and organ literature among students and seasoned scholars alike.

Barbara J. Owen, 1933-2024