Barbara Benary is a composer, multi-ethnic performer and ethnomusicologist living north of New York City. She received a B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College in Bronxville, New York, and an M.A. and Ph.D. from Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where her areas of specialization were musics of India and Indonesia. She subsequently taught ethnmusicology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. She has performed in the ensembles of Philip Glass, Jon Gibson, Alvin Lucier, Philip Corner and Daniel Goode. She has received a Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellowship (1972) and commissions from the National Endowment for the Arts (1982, 1993), Meet The Composer, and the Jerome Foundation.
Benary is a co-founder of Gamelan Son of Lion, a new music collective and repertory ensemble in New York City (1976- ). She has composed over thirty pieces for gamelan ensemble which have been performed by Gamelan Son of Lion and by other groups in the United States and internationally. Her composition work has been in two areas: ensemble chamber music and theater music. Her styles are various but include process and minimalism, and the integration of world music forms, structures and instruments with traditional western materials.
Sun on Snow, a record of her chamber music, has just been released by New World Records (Oct. 06). Dragon Toes, a second CD of her early gamelan works, was released in June 07 by GSOL Records (the label of Gamelan Son of Lion).
Benary has written theater and dance scores for a number of companies including New York Shakespeare Festival, LaMaMa E.T.C., Lenox Arts Theatre, Odyssey Theatre, Laura Pawel Dance Co. and Bali-Java Dance Theatre. Her theatre piece Karna: A Shadow Puppet Opera (1994) combines gamelan and vocal oratorio with Javanese wayang kulit puppetry. Wayang Esther: A Javanese Purimspiel (2001) continues her work in the format combining puppet theatre, oratorio and gamelan-based accompaniment.
Ms. Benary is a member of BMI. Her scores are distributed by Frog Peak Music and American Gamelan Institute. Any scores or recordings not listed with these distributors may be ordered directly from the composer: http://www.gamelansonoflion.org/bbenary.html