Joyce Barthelson

Helen Joyce Holloway Barthelson Steigman (May 18, 1900 – December 1986) was an American composer who created five operas and numerous shorter pieces. She co-founded the Hoff-Barthelson Music School in Scarsdale, New York.

Joyce Barthelson was born Helen Joyce Holloway in Yakima, Washington. She graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1918. She studied music at the University of California, Berkeley under Julius Gold, Otto Cesana, Roy Harris, and Nicolas Flagello.

In high school, she formed a chamber music group, the Arion Trio, with two classmates. She played piano and the others cello and violin. In the 1920s and 30s they were regularly heard (with some lineup changes) on San Francisco-area radio. They were first heard on KLX in 1924, then moved on to KGO and the NBC Pacific Coast Network. Barthelson also played piano on the network's General Independents Program.

In the late 1930s and early 1940s she was assistant conductor of the New York Women's Symphony Orchestra and composer in residence at Western Maryland College.

In 1944, she founded the Hoff-Barthelson Music School with Virginia Hoff. The school is still in operation.