Hi, I’m Adriana.

I am a Canadian journalist and author of Wired for Music, a science memoir on music and health.

I was a staff reporter for 14 years at Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail (see selected articles here). For my short-form bio, please scroll down.

Tidbits from my life so far:

most memorable interviews

Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, winner of the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, told me how high-intensity workouts, omega-3 fats and mindfulness can help slow down cellular wear and tear. 

Yo-Yo Ma spoke with me about his East-West fusion group, the Silk Road Ensemble, after I watched him perform in the throne room of Aleppo’s ancient citadel at the 2001 Aga Khan Award for Architecture in Syria. 

And I’ll never forget my interview with Elvis Harry Wilson, a soft-spoken Indigenous man living in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. He told me about his recovery from alcoholism, and how he used his settlement from residential school abuse to buy a house for his sister. 

craziest EXPERIENCES 

Skinny-dipping in the Dead Sea at sunset (on the Jordanian side). Plunging into a piranha-filled tributary of the Bolivian Amazon after a canoe hit mine while I was photographing sloths. 

strangest thing I’ve ever done for money

Pretending to lick the walls of a cave while dressed as a zombie. Back in my early 20s, I moonlighted as an extra for movies and TV series such as Happy Gilmour and The X-Files. 

Proudest moments

Watching my son grow from a handful of cells into a fun-loving 15-year-old who gets a kick out of gardening, skim-boarding and making sushi. Building a happy marriage (and choosing the right man for the journey). 

Biggest regret

Taking so long to find my way back to music after years of suffering from what I call “musical PTSD.” 

Guilty pleasures

Red wine with friends. Black licorice. Netflix.

short-form bio

Adriana Barton is a journalist, author and former staff reporter at Canada’s national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. Her writing on health, science, visual arts, architecture, music and pop culture has appeared in publications including Utne, Azure, Boston Globe, Western Living, Vancouver magazine, BlackFlash, Reader’s Digest books and San Francisco Bay Guardian. Her personal essay “Growing Up Hippie” was published in the anthology American Voices: Culture and Community (McGraw-Hill) alongside writings by Margaret Atwood and Garrison Keillor. Adriana studied the cello for 17 years with teachers including international solo artist Antonio Lysy and Stephen Geber, former principal cellist of the Cleveland Orchestra. Book research and journalism assignments have taken her to Syria, Jordan, India, Zimbabwe and Brazil. She has been a guest speaker at the Vancouver Writers Fest, Calgary’s Wordfest and Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts. In 2023, she gave the closing keynote at the 34th Annual Boston International Trauma Conference at the invitation of Dr. Bessel van der Kolk (author of The Body Keeps the Score). She lives in Vancouver, Canada, with her husband and son.