BOLLI Member Spotlight: Barbara Jordan
July 22, 2024
by Madison Sirois, Marketing Specialist, Rabb School of Continuing Studies
One of BOLLI’s greatest strengths is the group of people who make up our dynamic community. In this new spotlight series, we aim to highlight the perspectives and life experiences of some of BOLLI’s incredible members. If you or someone you know has a story to share with the BOLLI community, please message bolli@brandeis.edu.
Meet Barbara Jordan
When you take a course at BOLLI, you never know who is going to be in the room with you. There could be people younger than you or older than you; people from across the country or from your hometown; people who dedicated their lives to medicine or worked for years as journalists. There could even be someone like Barbara Jordan — a woman who spent nearly a decade transforming the lives of musicians as the founder of the Emmy Award-winning publishing company Heavy Hitters Music.
Barbara — who has been a member of BOLLI for nine years — has always had a special connection with music. Although she did not begin her undergraduate education at Clark University with a clear idea of what she would study, Barbara admitted that “the love of music quickly took over.” For Barbara, music is “therapy,” and it’s “about the only thing [she] really feel[s] like [she] was meant to do.”
Although Barbara — like most creatives — began to fear that she would not be able to find a job after college, she never allowed herself to stray too far from the field she loved. To establish a more stable future for herself, Barbara sought out experiences in arts administration, serving as the director of the Clark Fine Arts series in her junior year. She then interned for both the American Council for the Arts and the Marlboro Music Festival, where she discovered that “what [she] really wanted was to be the boss.”
After graduating from Clark, Barbara ran a nonprofit music management company in Boston for a few years before deciding to “get professional” and pursue an MBA in Arts Management at the University of California, Los Angeles. There, Barbara met her now husband — a man who was highly supportive of her musical ambitions. The two later moved to New York, where Barbara began to dip her toes into the music industry.
“My impulse was always to write programmatic music that was beautiful,” Barbara told BOLLI. “But I decided I was going to write songs, with lyrics, because you make money writing songs — and I wasn’t bad at it.”
Barbara balanced songwriting with her job as a nanny, managing to get quite a few songs published. During this time, she learned how to network within the music industry, making connections with people she knew could be hit songwriters. However, it is not until she moved back to Los Angeles that her songwriting career really began to take off.
“It was like lightning went off in my head,” Barbara said, describing her time in LA. “Everybody was a songwriter there, so I started writing with other writers.”
Barbara’s songs eventually made it to the ears of old friend Jeff Lurie (yes, that Jeff Lurie), who selected her as a music supervisor for a film at HBO. “I didn't get paid for it,” Barbara told BOLLI, “But I did get a reputation as somebody who had some power.”
Songwriters started coming to Barbara with their songs, seeking out her expertise. “So, just by default, I became a music publisher,” Barbara explained. “Everybody had songs, and nothing was happening to them. But after years in the business, I knew they could have value as background music.”
With the support of her husband, Barbara soon founded Heavy Hitters Music. Using her compassion and creativity, she was able to help artists get paid for their music — while also continuing to write songs of her own. Under Barbara’s leadership, Heavy Hitters bloomed into an Emmy-Award winning company, with her own songs being included on the soundtracks of popular shows like “The Sopranos,” “C.S.I,” and “The Good Wife.”
However, as successful as Barbara’s career was, working in the entertainment business was “brutal” for her. At times, interactions within the music industry caused Barbara to lose her faith in “goodness” — and after nearly a decade of running Heavy Hitters, Barbara made the difficult decision to prioritize her mental health and sell the business.
This decision did not come without regrets. Instead of feeling empowered by her newly acquired free time, Barbara began feeling lost — especially when her initial plans to retire in Maine fell through. It is this struggle to adjust to retirement that prompted Barbara’s move to Waltham, where she eventually discovered meaning and community at BOLLI.
“I wanted to live in a completely new place, to take a sort of sabbatical from my retirement and think about my life,” Barbara said. Her sister-in-law — who was a research scientist at Brandeis — suggested that she try out Waltham, so Barbara moved into an apartment building near the Charles River. A lot of BOLLI members just so happened to live there — and soon enough, Barbara joined BOLLI herself.
For Barbara, the community at BOLLI became a crucial source of support as she learned to navigate life during retirement. “What I loved immediately about BOLLI is that I felt very comfortable,” Barbara reflected. “I was one of the younger people there, but I didn’t mind at all. There are some extraordinarily impressive people at BOLLI, and I’ve learned so much.”
Not only did Barbara discover new ways to express herself — taking courses centered around photography, memoir writing, and storytelling — but she also found good friends in her instructors and peers, who have been extremely supportive of her work. “I’ve had a lot of songs published in film and television,” Barbara said, “but seeing one of my photographs and a few memoirs published in the BOLLI Journal was very validating.”
While Barbara no longer lives in Waltham, she has continued to take BOLLI courses virtually — and, due to the encouragement of BOLLI member Aaron Goldberg, she has even taught a few courses of her own.
Although Barbara was initially hesitant to become a Study Group Leader, the experience has been very rewarding. She said that working with BOLLI member Oliver Curme on the course “Lights, Camera, Music” helped to “take [her] out of a weird, stressed-out stage of [her] life.” Teaching “Songwriter’s Playground” — a course based on Barbara’s popular book — has also brought her joy in a number of ways.
“The material is so good for people,” Barbara reflected. “Everyone has fun, even if they can’t sing a note. I’ve seen some people in my class go from not very happy to just pure joyful.” This, Barbara said, is part of “the magic of music.”
As someone who struggles with depression, Barbara has found that putting her creativity to use — whether that be by teaching “Songwriter’s Playground,” working on one of her musicals, or making art from found materials — can help bring light back to her life. Aside from being a dog mom to a playful Jack Russell Terrier, remaining virtually connected with BOLLI has contributed positively to Barbara’s mental health, allowing her to “utilize [her] skills” and “contribute something in this crazy cosmos.”
To anyone who is feeling a little lost in their retirement — and to anyone who just wants to challenge themselves by trying something new, Barbara highly recommends BOLLI. “It gives people like me, who feel expired, a sense of renewal, and a reason to get up everyday,” Barbara said. “I’m still trying to figure out who I am and what I should be, but BOLLI feels like it’s a step in the right direction.”
Barbara is planning to teach “Songwriter’s Playground” at BOLLI in the fall. To learn more about BOLLI’s courses and membership options, please visit our website.