Barbara Kreader is a Keyboard Consultant for Educational Keyboard Publications to the Hal Leonard Corporation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. She has taught piano continuously for
over 40 years. A faculty member of the Northwestern University Music Academy, she also maintains an independent studio in Evanston, Illinois.
As a child and young adult, Kreader studied piano with Beth Miller Harrod, attending Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Colorado for seven summers. She was the Program Director of the Junior Student Seminars at Rocky Ridge from 1998-2003.
A graduate of Northwestern University, Kreader earned a M.M. in Piano Performance in 1974 studying piano with Laurence Davis and piano pedagogy with Frances Larimer.
The editor of Clavier magazine from 1982-1988, Kreader has published articles in Clavier, The Piano Quarterly,
and Keyboard Companion. She was the editor of the Parent/Teacher/Child column in Keyboard Companion from 1992-2006 and currently serves as Clavier Companion's Senior Consulting Editor and as a regular columnist.
Kreader served as moderator for the three Baldwin/Clavier Keyboard Teacher's Videoconferences presented in 1986, 1987, and 1988. From 1988-1989 she instituted a Baldwin-sponsored program of piano lessons and supervised practice in the after-school child care programs in the Evanston District 65 schools. She joined Hal Leonard in November 1989.
Barbara Kreader is a co-author of over 40 titles in the Hal Leonard Student Piano Library, a piano method for children. She has given workshops in over 250 cities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, China, Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, and Malaysia.
Kreader's book, The Music of Teaching: Learning to Trust Students' Natural Development was published by Hal Leonard Corporation on July 1, 2016.