Performer and educator Dr. Michael DiBarry (he/him) performs across the U.S. and Canada on both violin and viola. A recent invited guest of the Emerging Artists Concerts Series with Jeunesses Musicales Canada, Michael served as a Sistema NB teaching artists with the New Brunswick Youth Orchestra in and sectional coach of the Miramichi Youth String Orchestra in Miramichi, Canada. Michael received a Doctor of Musical Arts from Arizona State University where he was a member of the in-residence fellowship ensemble, the Herberger String Quartet. He founded the chamber music series Oakmont Musicivic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, received the Joan Frazer Memorial Award for Judaism and the Arts for composing a Yiddish song cycle, and pioneered microtonal violin pedagogy that bridges the gap between Western and Middle Eastern ear training. Michael received his Master of Music in Violin Performance from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and his Bachelor of Music as well as a double Minor in Music Theory and Italian Studies from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec.

Michael has been a guest with the ProMusica Chamber Orchestra of Columbus, the West Virginia Symphony Orchestra, the Arizona Bach Festival, the Arizona Philharmonic, the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, CityMusic Cleveland Chamber Orchestra, and the Westmoreland Symphony Orchestra. He was a finalist of the ASU Concerto Competition as well as frequent concertmaster and principal second of the university orchestra. He has performed in masterclasses for Jorja Fleezanis, Paul Kantor, Stefan Jackiw, and Andres Cardenas, among others. He appeared as a guest artist and lecturer at Fullerton College (2019), gave the world premiere of Native American Composer Brent Michael Davids’ “Wood that Sings” at the American String Teacher Association National Conference (2019), and was the first violinist in the Herberger String Quartet (2017-2019).

With a passion for education, he has been teaching private lessons for over a decade, working with students of all ages in violin, viola, chamber music, music theory, and ear training. He incorporates core Suzuki principles into a Galamian school of technique and actively curates diverse repertoires for both violin and viola. His viola pedagogy is committed to instrument-specific technique, tone, and repertoire as distinct from violin.

His principal teachers include Katie McLin, Steven Shipps, Marcelle Mallette and Thomas Williams. He is an alumnus of the Chautauqua Music School Festival Orchestra, Domaine Forget Chamber Music Festival, the International Music Workshop & Festival in Kirchberg, Germany, l’Orchestre de la francophonie, the Green Mountain Chamber Music Festival, the Meadowmount School of Music, and Eastern Music Festival. Michael speaks French and Italian.