Super talent Stacey Barnett admitted to SWC music Hall of Fame

Don’t let the blonde pigtails and librarian’s glasses fool you. Stacey Barnett can rock.

And rap.

And scat.

And jam.

Former Southwestern College super singer Stacey Barnett is petite but powerful. Her willowy frame houses a thunderous voice.

“Some people seem to be surprised that I project so well because I’m a smaller person,” she said.

Barnett is a big talent with a big voice. She is a sultry Jazz singer, a roaring rocker, a perky pop artist and the college’s reigning hip hop and rap champion.

Former SWC music major and Barnett fan Darrell Pearson said his colleague can do it all.

“Stacey has one of those voices that no matter what she sings you’re going to like it,” he said. “She’s always experimenting with music. Everything she does is musical.”

Barnett’s shy demeanor can also cause some to mistake her for someone uncomfortable in public forums. She is a chameleon who can seem shy, but Barnett has an inner rocker chick that can take over.

After excelling at SWC, Barnett transferred to SDSU where she is majoring in music.

SWC music instructor Tracy Burklund-Becker is a mentor to Barnett who has seen her blossom.

“Stacey is capable of anything,” she said. “She is driven and destined to succeed.”

Pearson said Barnett is ready for her next step.

“She’s learned everything she could from SWC and it definitely prepared her to go on to SDSU,” he said. “I think she’s gonna go on to even greater things after that.”

With a résumé of classes that illustrates her passion for music, Barnett actually started SWC as a biology major. After two semesters Barnett unleashed her passion for music. She enrolled in Concert Choir, World Music and Jazz Vocal Ensemble, which requires an audition.

Fascinated by the anthropological aspect of music, Barnett joined the college’s renowned African hand-drumming group.

“I would like to travel and work with different cultures,” she said. “I’ve never heard the traditional or the folk music from a culture that I was just like ‘Ugh, what is this?’ I really like it. Even if it’s not something that I prefer, it’s something that I find interesting.”

Professor of Music Todd Caschetta said Barnett was always around the music building. Her responses in class were always well thought out and intelligent, he said.

Besides intangible factors, success requires devotion, said Burklund-Becker.

“Not only do you have to be talented, but you have to possess the passion to perform,” she said. “Stacey has a passion for music.”

Each music genre is an idiom, containing its own symbols, verbiage and expressions, Barnett said.

“I think it is a language,” she said. “There is a technical aspect and I guess you could compare it to actually learning a language and becoming fluent in it. I like it when people compare music to a language because it is a form of communication.”

One of her earliest singing memories is when her mother would have her sing “The Colors of the Wind” from “Pocahontas.”

“I don’t remember how much I liked it then,” she said. “But I know that I liked singing in my free time.”

Her father was also a great influence, she said, and presented her with her first instrument, a mini keyboard he won in a raffle. Her innate ability to understand music was apparent.

“I didn’t know anything about reading music,” she said. “But I would learn how to play one-handed melodies by ear.”

Before moving on to SDSU Barnett was inducted into the SWC Choral Department Hall of Fame, an honor bestowed upon few. Barnett said she has no idea how she was nominated and was caught off guard when she was honored during a choral concert last semester.

Barnett recently joined the metal core band Thirty 30, composed mostly of old middle school friends. They have performed at The Ocean Beach Playhouse, and are in the process of writing and recording their own songs. She also performed at The 38^th Annual Nicky Awards, a ceremony honoring those who contribute to the gay community.

A soprano one, Barnett is not even remotely close to hitting her highest notes yet, insist her friends. The Voice of SWC has gone to an even bigger stage.