Violinist Barbara Riccardi graduated manga cum laude from Vassar College, where she studied violin with Boris Koutzen, and chamber music with Luis Garcia-Renart. This led to studies with the Guarneri String Quartet, whose first violinist, Arnold Steinhardt, became her sole violin teacher for many years.

Barbara came to California to join the San Francisco Symphony under Seiji Ozawa, and later moved to the San Francisco Opera Orchestra, where she is still a member of the first violin section.

Also in demand as a free-lance violinist, Barbara has served as Concertmaster of the Festival Opera and the Pocket Opera, and performs often with the San Francisco Symphony and other groups in the area. In 2005, she became a founding member of the Temescal String Quartet, along with violist Jonna Hervig, who was also part of the Guarneri Quartet master class, and violinist Katherine Button, whom she met while freelancing in the Bay Area.