“As soloist with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on live television … cellist Amy Sue Barston performed Dvorak’s Cello Concerto with controlled abandon.”
– Chicago Tribune
“The New York premiere was performed with passion and eloquence … performed by cellist Amy Sue Barston.”
– New York Times
“The deep, rounded tones of Barston’s cello haunted the vocal line like a sorrowing vision.”
– Chicago Sun Times
“Amy Barston, cellist, was a shining star. She created excruciating tension by a pluck of a string … with exquisite precision, timing, and sensitivity.”
– Portland Press Herald
Business Insider article about Amy’s Teaching [PDF]
Amy Barston: Living and Breathing Music [PDF]
July 25, 2010: Article from The Seattle Times. Performance of Mozart Fit for Royality — and Everyday Chamber Music Fans — at Olympic Music Festival. [view online]
“[Mozart] flattered his royal patron by including many prominent and taxing solos for the cello, which the king played with enthusiasm and surely with some competence. Amy Sue Barston rose nobly to the occasion at the Olympic Music Festival performance on Saturday, phrasing eloquently with lustrous tone in the frequent passages near the top of the cello’s range, and providing solid grounding for her colleagues when Mozart took the instrument down to its formerly prevailing lower reaches.”
August 18, 2005: Article from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle. Canandaigua’s chamber music festival promises originality. [download pdf]
“On February 11, 2005, we presented cellist Amy Barston at St. Luke’s Hospital in a program called “An Afternoon of J.S. Bach: The Solo Cello Suites 1, 3, & 6.” Patients, family members, hospital staff and guests gathered in the main lobby of this medical center’s uptown hospital to hear Amy’s sensitive and haunting renditions of these famous cello suites. Playing a Stradivarius cello on loan to her, Amy was able to bring distinctive musical subtleties to each suite that seemed quite natural on the gorgeous 300+ year-old instrument. The audience was delighted to have such a musical gift in the middle of their normal winter Friday afternoon, and there were many shows of appreciation to both the cellist and the Classical Cures staff. Immediately after this concert, Amy was gracious enough to bring the first movement of Bach Suite No. 1 to the bedside of a patient who is recovering in a nearby rehabilitation hospice. The patient and family were most grateful for the private mini-concert. It was a satisfying afternoon of music and healing all around.”
– Classical Cures