She first performed when she was six years old, singing "Tender Shepherd" from the 1954 musical Peter Pan at a talent show at the Armuchee Elementary School.
[7] In the summers of 2006 and 2007, Barton was a Gerdine Young Artist at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis and a Fellow in Vocal Studies at the Tanglewood Music Center.
[7][9] In summer 2007, Barton made her professional operatic debut singing the role of Annina, the maid, in Verdi's La traviata at the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis.
[13] In 2011, Barton performed the role of Mère Marie in Poulenc's Dialogues of the Carmelites at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich.
She sang three roles: the Voice of the Mother in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann, the Nurse in Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov, and the Dryade in Richard Strauss's Ariadne auf Naxos.
[23] In a review of a recital at the Kennedy Center in 2009, Anne Midgette said that Barton had a "big voice" and "sang very well" but "showed [a] penchant for mugging".