Composer and music editor Susan LaBarr has had glamorous and polished performance experiences in her career, but her first Springfield Little Theatre production stands out in her mind for its unique qualities.

“STARMITES was my first mainstage [SLT] show in 1999. I’m like, if that is the first show you do at a theater and you come back for other shows, that’s saying something about how good the experience is because that is one very weird show,” LaBarr joked.

The sci-fi comic book musical is known for its 1980s excess and punk aesthetics. LaBarr still smiles at the communal, quirky, and offbeat memories of working together as a cast to achieve the high-concept style.

“We were in the most insane costumes. I was in the chorus, and we were like ‘space jungle banshee women’,” she laughed. “They basically said, ‘Figure out what you want to wear and how you want to do your hair and makeup.’ So, we just all went crazy with it. I had like these big, painted stars on my face. My hair was in a bunch of ponytails every night. It was just so weird. We were just all so happy that we didn’t care about the details. Happy to be there and be together.”

LaBarr would then become a member of Y.E.S. Troupe and perform in Springfield Little Theatre’s A CENTURY OF SONG, a special celebration of The Crown Jewel of The Ozarks as it entered the new millennium.

As a college student, LaBarr volunteered with SLT’s summer programs which gave her early exposure to running a show. She said she still often reflects on the way that experience encouraged her future work in the arts and credits the supportive, creative environment at SLT for giving her confidence throughout her music career. Encouragement from leaders like Executive Director Beth Domann gave her the space to explore and try her hand at directing.

“I was in charge of the 9–12-year-olds, wrote them a show, and directed it. I shouldn’t have been doing that, but it was so much fun and turned out great,” LaBarr recalled. “Just the fact that Beth [Domann] and other leadership there were like, ‘Hey, you can do this. Go for it.’ Just that freedom to be creative and just to have that space to try something you hadn’t tried before and the support from the adults around. For me, it was all Beth at the time who gave that space and creative freedom, which has been important to my life.”

As a successful music editor with Walton Music and published composer, LaBarr now lectures and speaks with groups of both accomplished and budding artists. She said all these years later, Domann’s name is still on her list of influences in her life and career. She even recently mentioned her experience at SLT on a video for a session about women composers that will be aired at a national choir conference.

“[Beth] came up in that as well as an important woman in my life at a formative time who was a leader in this organization,” she revealed. “I saw her at the helm, and it was just that example for me at a young age of, ‘Yes, of course I can do whatever I want because look at these women around who are at the helm of things.’ Just being that example for me of what was possible.”

LaBarr grew up in Springfield and attended Missouri State University where she earned her Bachelor of Arts in music and a Master of Music in music theory. She met her husband, Cameron, during her studies. After graduating, the couple moved to Texas and then Tennessee before Cameron secured the coveted Director of Choral Studies position at Missouri State University.

LaBarr has published dozens of pieces for choir and composed a six-movement solo piece called LITTLE BLACK BOOK that premiered at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

“LITTLE BLACK BOOK is all about past, failed relationships,” she explained. “Some of them are heartbreaking and then there are several funny movements as well, and they’re true stories. Each of the movements has a guy’s name, which is really funny. It was great. It was really fun.”

LaBarr and her husband both work with accomplished musicians from around the world. They recently partnered with South African choir TUKS Camerata from the University of Pretoria led by conductor Michael Barrett for an inspiring concert at Juanita K. Hammons Hall. In addition to traditional South African music and spirituals, the performance featured a new piece composed by LaBarr, ‘The Cardinal and the Roller.’ The couple’s collaboration with Barrett will take them back to Carnegie Hall in April 2026 along with SLT Music Director, Parker Payne.

“Our friend Michael [Barrett] and Cameron [LaBarr] will conduct the concert at Carnegie Hall on the main stage and then they’ll be featuring my music,” LaBarr explained. “It won’t be all my music – which is smart because everything by one person is sometimes not the best variety – but it’ll be heavily programmed with my chorale pieces. Parker will play piano for that.”

LaBarr began her music editing career with a publisher in Dallas before landing her current position with Walton Music. She works with composers in identifying new pieces with potential for publication. She then shepherds the works from submission through printing which can include editing, notating, score layout, and even supervising translations. Foreign languages often call for implementing the ‘international phonetic alphabet’ which helps singers around the world achieve correct pronunciation.

“I’ve learned so much about cultures, about people. Of course, about their music, but really about the people and how there is so much more than connects us than there is that divides us – even here in the United States,” LaBarr noted. “That’s the coolest thing about choir because choir is not competitive. I love sports and there is definitely a place for competition, but choir is a place where people can just come, and they work together to do something for a common goal. There’s really nothing else like it. Theater, putting a show together, dancing, or choreographing a dance number. I don’t know what people do who don’t have some kind of art in their life.”

Although some of LaBarr’s clients, like renowned Korean composer Hyo-Wan Woo, come from foreign cultures and reside thousands of miles away, there is always something about their work that speaks to her. With seventeen years of experience, LaBarr now trusts her own intuition.

“I’ve been to so many concerts and so many conferences and traveled all over the world to hear choirs. Some of it is just simply knowing what people are performing and what works well and sounds good,” she explained. “Our music dealers will say, ‘You always pick things out of the box or in a different direction that anyone else’s.’ I can’t really explain it. It’s just when I hear something that speaks to me that might be totally different than what choirs are doing currently, it’s like, ‘Well, let’s just go for it. Let’s just try it.’ It just all kind of goes back to these things from the theatre, what we were just talking about with Beth [Domann] of, ‘Just go for it. Let’s try it. Let’s see how it works. See if people like it.’

LaBarr’s work and raising a family keep her busy now, but she still has a fondness for the friendships she formed at SLT and the performances that influenced her path. The beauty and faith focus of CHILDREN OF EDEN shaped her early love for theatre and has become one of her most memorable SLT experiences.

“That’s the [show] that solidified my love for that space and the people there. I think it was somewhat the subject matter, but just that it’s ultimately the story of love,” she reflected. “There’s such a great feeling among everyone and then seeing people like Rachel Peacock-Young who had one of the leads and hearing her sing onstage for the first time was just absolutely stunning. Robert Reed was ‘God’ in that show. Seeing this kind, wonderful man who was so great with all the kids who were around and then get out there and command the stage and his voice was so beautiful. It was just like a big family. It was so much fun. Lots of backstage memories from that one as well.”

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