Guy Barash

Israeli composer Guy Barash commonly juxtaposes improvised materials with composed ones creating an atmosphere where both performer and listener are invited to embrace uncertainty. His series of compositions for solo instruments and real-time digital signal processing, “Talkback,” which was hailed as being “at once divine, serene and haunting” (The Queens Chronicle). 

Developing innovative, multidisciplinary projects, Barash collaborates with a wide array of artists including poets, video-artists, and choreographers. His decade-long collaboration with American author Nick Flynn has produced several works including Blind Huber, commissioned by the Jerome Foundation for an Electronic Music Foundation composer-residency and their opera Alice Invents a Little Game and Alice Always Wins based on Flynn’s play. An excerpt from the opera was performed at the Metropolitan Opera Guild’s Exploring 20th-Century Opera lecture series. Additional highlights were presented at Fort Worth Opera’s Frontiers showcase. 

An integral component in the international new music scene, Barash’s music has been featured in Belgium, London, Japan, Israel, and across the U.S. 

Project: 

Everything constantly changes, including me. In my collection of text-based “game pieces,” I take a closer look at open and semi-open forms where change is inevitably embraced by performers and listeners alike. Distilled from both Jewish and Zen Buddhist scriptures that examine impermanence, the text will serve as material for a vocalist to sing as well as the score itself – a set of rules according to which the sequence of events in the piece will unfold.