She’s an enthusiastic member of the Sinfonia Orchestra on the Mid North Coast.

Her talent shone through at a very early age, inherited from a musical family on her father’s side.

“My aunt, Vera Bedford, was a contralto with Dame Nellie Melba. Her mother, my grandmother, was described as ‘a vivacious, self-willed actress’. And my grandfather was on the stage.”

Barbara’s parents split up before she was born and her mother took her and her brother went to live with their grandparents.

“My parents had been founding a commune in Mount Isa in Queensland and living in tents.  My mother wasn’t a person who could rough it, and she left with my brother, aged 18 months, and she was pregnant with me.

“She went to North Sydney to her parents and we lived there.”

Barbara’s first job, aged 14, in 1940, was with The Wholesale Records which sold 78 discs and she stayed in the music business.

“I lived through the great years of pop music, jazz with the big bands, the romantic era of songs, and all the great classics that have stood the test of time.

“My brother and I marched along the street to Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony and whistled the tune,” she recalls.

When she was 17 and at work, an elderly gentleman handed her a violin and said: “Go and learn that.  You are very musical.”

“When I started my practice, my relatives laughed at the sound.  My brothers said: ‘Don’t take any notice of them, and never give that up.’

“In 1949, I heard the famous French classical violinist, Ginette Neveu at the Sydney Town Hall play ‘The Devil’s Trill’ by Tartini. 

“It was freezing cold, but my heart sang with the warmth of her playing.  She died in 1949 in a plane crash.  She was just 30.

“My brother, who was in the airforce, died in a crash in 1950. It affected me very badly.  I couldn’t concentrate.  I gave up music. I couldn’t even listen to music and I was a heavy drinker.

“I believe I had a breakdown.  I joined the army and was a driver in the Korean War in the 50s.  It was a great experience, and I wouldn’t have missed it.”

After years in the military, Barbara took up yoga.

“I came to yoga in my 30s because I was disgusted with myself,” she recalls.

She went to live in a yoga ashram in Sydney in 1960.

“I studied physical, mental and spiritual development, and to this day, I have kept up the practices.”

She didn’t pick up the violin again until she was in her 50s.

“Music was the only thing I cared about.  I have always been on a spiritual path. I taught yoga, and I still practice it.  That’s what I love  doing.  I know every Beethoven symphony and piano concerto.  Music comes naturally to me.”

Then, when she was 53, Barbara had an unfortunate accident.

“I had a fall and broke my sacrum.  The doctor said I’d be in a wheelchair.  I sought natural treatments with an osteopath, an acupuncturist and massage, and I still have regular treatments. I do my yoga and keep fit.”

“Living in the Blue Mountains in an ashram in Leura, my violin practices began in earnest.  I found great support from teachers, until my fingering became impossible through pain shooting up my left arm.

“Because of this, I changed to the other side, because I am naturally left-handed.  After struggling with the strings reversed, I enjoyed many years with Orpheus Strings at Katoomba, and when I moved to Wauchope, I played with other groups, and now with the Sinfonia orchestra.”

Sinfonia is the premier community orchestra of the Mid North Coast, drawing its players, aged from teens to seniors- from across the region.  The orchestra stages two major concert series per year across the region plus other smaller concerts.

Barbara never married and is very happy living with her little dog, Bella.

“I just love to play music with other people.  My life has been great.  I don’t regret any part of it.  Life is about learning.  I can feel quite a high playing music.  It’s a spiritual journey.”