Biography

Dora Barnes was born and raised in Yakima, Washington. She started studying piano at the age of five from her grandmother Gwenda Brown who was an elementary music teacher at Nob Hill Elementary. In middle school Dora began playing the alto saxophone and studied with Rosemary Algire. Dora was a proud member of her middle school band and jazz band lead by Mr. Jeffery Chapman. She started singing at age 15 and studied classical voice for 6+ years with Debra Hardy in Yakima. Dora pursued her music education at Yakima Valley Community College and continued on to Central Washington University. She studied voice at CWU with Dr. Linda Marra.

 

Dora made her first musical debut in a production of Rodger and Hammerstein's "Oklahoma!" as Laurey. She also performed as Dee Dee in Yakima's Warehouse Theatre production of "Why Do Fools Fall in Love?", Ariel in Shakespeare's "The Tempest" at YVCC, Cinderella in Rodger and Hammerstein's "Cinderella", Mrs. Jenkins in CWU's performance of Aaron Copeland's "The Tender Land" and played Adele in the Yakima Valley Light Opera Company's production of Johann Strauss' "Die Fledermaus".  She has received first place in both "Yakima's Got Talent" and "The Union Gap Idol" contests and was a judge during one of the "Union Gap Idol" contests. She was also involved in 4 years of NATS competitions throughout high school and college.

 

Dora now resides in Seattle, Washington and studies voice with Davida Kagen. She is a part of many musical institutes around Seattle including the Seattle Art Song Society, Ladies Musical Club, Puget Sound Concert Opera, Northwest Opera In Schools, Etc. and the Seattle Opera Guild. Most recent roles include Pamina in Mozart's The Magic Flute, Countess Almaviva in  Le Nozze di Figaro and Lady Valerie in Amy Beach's Cabildo.

 She also participates in two bands: The Epics and The OBG's, both oldies cover bands in which she is lead vocalist and plays saxophone.

 

Dora started teaching music in 2014 at the 4/4 school of Music where she taught piano and voice, and then taught at the Seattle School of Rock. She now gives private lessons that include voice, piano and saxophone.