Ronald James Barnett died on June 30, 2021. He played percussion for 57 summer seasons (1965-2016) with the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra, and taught percussion to students at the Chautauqua School of Music from 1965–2013. He had full-time positions as timpanist at the Kennedy Center’s Opera and Ballet Orchestra from 1971–2000, and taught percussion at the University of Maryland, College Park from 1967–2002. He also performed at the Kennedy Center Honors and at various venues in the Washington, D.C, area with such notables as the Three Tenors, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Pearl Bailey, and many others. During his performing career he was privileged to play under such illustrious conductors as Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajam, Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Leopoid Stokowski, Arthur Fiedler, John Williams, and others. After retiring from the Kennedy Center and University of Maryland, he taught for one year at Shenandoah University in Winchester, while continuing to perform at Chautauqua during the summer.

He served in the U.S. Navy Band as timpanist and marimba soloist from 1960–64 and also in the funeral procession for President John F. Kennedy. As a retiree, he performed with the emeritus group of symphonic percussionists at PASIC.

Ron received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music in 1960, where he was a member of the Marimba Masters. That group performed on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1958. Ron earned his master’s degree from the University of Maryland in 1973, where he taught for 35 years.