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Barbara McKenzie “It is in imagination — without boundaries — where we are able to freely think, explore and discover.” “She was recommending me for her position since she was leaving. I didn’t want to leave my doctoral studies, but my voice teacher said, ‘you definitely should.’ I applied for the job and UNCW hired me over the phone! I was only 30 years old and had my first full- time academic position. I’ve been teach-ing since and loving it.” F or Barbara and singing in the community ever McKenzie, the realization that she wanted to return to her native North Carolina came during a performance in Yugoslavia, when she 44 WBM february 2014 suddenly thought, “Why am I here?” She knew in that moment that it was time to go home. “I went to Germany after receiving my master’s degree from the Peabody School of Music in Baltimore because it was a rare opportunity,” she says. “What I found there was a reverence for music and artists and performers. In this country, people had said: ‘What do you do?’ and when I told them I was a classical pianist, they looked at me as if that were my hobby, and they wanted to know what I really did.” “After 10 years of performing in doz-ens and dozens of countries all over the world and also touring for the US State Department, I knew I wanted to stay in


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