She was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and studied at the University of Minnesota with Dominick Argento and Paul Fetler (composition), Bernard Weiser (piano) and Emil J. Niosi (flute).
[1] After completing her education, Barnett went on the road, playing keyboard and singing background vocals with Mexican guitar player Ben Peña, worked as a freelance music copyist (1976-1997), and played in the Children's Theatre pit and various community orchestras (1980-2016).
Barnett was composer-in-residence with the Dale Warland Singers from 1991 to 2001,[2] and an adjunct instructor in music theory and composition at Augsburg College in Minneapolis from 2000 to 2015.
She was awarded the 2003 Nancy Van de Vate International Prize for Opera for her chamber opera, Snow,[3] and her music theater work Meeting at Seneca Falls was featured at the 2006 Diversity Festival in Red Wing, MN.
The World Beloved: A Bluegrass Mass, commissioned in 2006 by VocalEssence and written with Marisha Chamberlain, had its Carnegie Hall debut in February 2013, and has become a favorite across the country.