BARBARA GOLDEN is an ex-housewife/schoolteacher from Montreal. She is known for her multi-media works comprising topical and bawdy songs; chamber music utilizing strings, percussion, voice, and text; films, poetry, and cooking. Her latest piece "Pink Pleasure", a collaboration with Bill Thibault which deconstructs the Goya "Naked Maya" painting through prose, live computer graphics and music, has been shown in Montreal, San Francisco, Budapest, and Prague. A compact disc, forthcoming for Spring 94, is entitled "Barbara Golden's Greatest Hits: Volume I" and is an entertaining look at her text pieces and songs.

"Take Me Out To the Ballgame", a film made with Helen Prince, is distributed worldwide by Encyclopedia Britannica and has won prizes at film festivals both here and abroad. Golden currently lives in Oakland where she hosts the radio show "Crack o' Dawn" on KPFA, plays in a Balinese Angklung, and performs her songs with cabaret group WIGband.

FOUR VEES is a chamber work which was originally written for a small ensemble consisting of violin, viola, vibes, and four vocalists. The influence in the third section is quasi-Hungarian in both rhythm and timbre pre-dating the composer's pilgrimage to that location in search of her Hungarian ancestry. The Oakland Community Symphony premieres an expanded version of FOUR VEES to include string orchestra including cello and bass. The full title of the piece was FOUR VEES FOR EVVIE, in homage to Golden's 80-year old mother, Evelyn, who was very sick at the time and has fully recovered.

The four vocalists are prominent members of the renowned Dole Ensemble and the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, plus other fortunate ensembles. They are mezzo sopranos: Barbara Zettel, Heidi Waterman, and Ruth E. Wells, and counter tenor Steve McKearney.