Barbara Kernig grew up in Freiburg in a music-loving family. Profoundly formative musical experiences came from her time with the Rhineland-Palatinate State Youth Orchestra. She began her music studies in Düsseldorf with Johannes Goritzki. Even then, a love for early music emerged as a “secret pleasure.” It was no coincidence that at the age of 24 she moved to Amsterdam to continue her studies, where she personally encountered many of the pioneers she so admired: her teacher Jaap ter Linden, the conductors Frans Brüggen and Gustav Leonhardt, as well as the great cello pioneer Anner Bylsma. 

In the early years of her musical career, alongside projects with many different ensembles in France, Spain, and Italy, her long-standing continuo work under Hermann Max and his ensembles Das Kleine Konzert was particularly formative, with whom she made countless recordings for WDR. In addition to her regular collaboration with the Nederlandse Bachvereniging (since 1992), her enduring passion has been chamber music, which she cultivates above all with The Northern Consort in Groningen. 

After 1997, her activities increasingly focused on projects with the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin.