BARBARA KREADER is Keyboard Editor for Educational Publications at Hal Leonard Corporation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Kreader has taught piano continuously for nearly thirty years. A faculty member of Northwestern University's Division of Preparatory and Community Music from 1974-1985, she also maintained an independent studio at her home in Evanston, Illinois, where she continues to teach forty students weekly.

As a child and young adult, Kreader studied piano with Beth Miller Harrod, attending Rocky Ridge Music Center in Estes Park, Colorado for several summers. She is now the Program Director of the Junior Students Seminars at Rocky Ridge.

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 is currently the editor of the "Parent/Teacher/Child" column in Keyboard Companion.

Kreader served as moderator for the three Baldwin/Clavier Keyboard Teachers' Videoconferences presented in 1986-88. From 1988-1989, she instituted a Baldwin-sponsored program of piano lessons and supervised practice in the after-school child care programs in Evanston's District 65 schools and served as the Editor of Baldwin Piano and Organ Company's Soundboard.

She joined Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation in November of 1989, and is one of the co-authors of the Hal Leonard Student Piano Library. Kreader has given workshops in over 130 cities in the United States, Canada, Australia, China, Taiwan, and Malaysia.