Jasmine Barnes
Jasmine Arielle Barnes is a promising young composer and vocalist whose work has been performed all over the world. She is a multifaceted composer who embraces a variety of genres, formats, and instrumentations with a specialty of writing for the voice. A full-time composer, Barnes is currently a composer-in-residence for American Lyric Theater. Barnes previously held residencies as a composer fellow at Chautauqua Opera, and composer-in-residence with All Classical Portland. Her work is in high demand, with recent commissions from respected institutions throughout the country including: The Washington National Opera (in celebration of the Kennedy Center’s 50th year anniversary), Bare Opera, Resonance Ensemble, Tapestry Choir, City Works Cleveland, LyricFest Philadelphia, Baltimore Choral Arts, Burleigh Music Festival, Symphony Number One, Baltimore Musicales, The Voic(ed) Project, amongst others.
Upcoming engagements includes the world premiere of Plumshuga at STAGES Houston, an arrangement of spirituals commissioned by Orpheus Chamber Orchestra to debut at Carnegie Hall performed by Karen Slack and Will Liverman, and a new song cycle commissioned by world-renowned tenor Russell Thomas to be performed at Los Angeles Opera. Other recent commissions include Might Call You Art for CityMusic Cleveland, Portraits: Douglass & Tubman for Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Maternità for Takesha Meshé Kizart and Anima Mundi Productions, and I Will Follow You into the Dark with American Lyric Theatre.
For perusal inquiries, click here.
Calendar
Aspen, CO
to
Nov 13
Houston, TX
New York, NY
Artist Bio
Jasmine Arielle Barnes is a promising composer/vocalist who has performed and has had her music performed all over the world. She is a multifaceted composer who embraces any writing style of music using a variety of instrumentation and specializes in writing for the voice. A full time composer, Barnes is a composer in residence for American Lyric Theater, and has held residencies as a composer fellow at Chautauqua Opera 2021 season, as well as a residency with All Classical Portland. She has held the privilege of being commissioned by numerous organizations such as The Washington National Opera (in celebration of the Kennedy Center’s 50th year anniversary), Bare Opera, Resonance Ensemble, Tapestry Choir, City Works Cleveland, LyricFest Philadelphia, Baltimore Choral Arts, Burleigh Music Festival, Symphony Number One, Baltimore Musicales, The Voic(ed) Project, amongst others. Upcoming engagements includes the world premiere of Plumshuga at STAGES Houston, orchestrating for Karen Slack and Will Liverman’s Carnegie Hall Recital with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, and a composition for an upcoming Russell Thomas Recital. Other recent commissions include Might Call You Art for CityMusic Cleveland, Portraits: Douglass & Tubman for Baltimore Choral Arts Society, Maternità for Takesha Meshé Kizart and Anima Mundi Productions, and I Will Follow You Into the Dark with American Lyric Theatre.
Jasmine is beginning to be noticed for her work. Her 10 minute opera entitled The Late Walk commissioned by Bare Opera as a part of the Decameron Opera Coalition has been archived in the Library of Congress. Examples of The Late Walk are used as a subject and study feature in a book called “Narrative Oper” by Sonja Dierks, a German author. Barnes received the 2021 Florence Price award for composition, named a winner of the Black Brilliance award by The Pleiades Project , recognized as the Gwendolyn J Brinkley Fine Arts First Place Award Winner of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. South Central Region 2021, and named a finalist of All Classical Portland’s Recording Inclusivity Initiative. Outside of commissions, her work has been performed by numerous High Performing Artists and Organizations such as Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra, Portland Opera, Tulsa Opera, Hampsong Foundation ( at the Elbphilharmonie), Tennessee State University Meistersingers, University of North Iowa, University of Memphis, Indiana University (graduate song literature class), Karen Slack, Leah Hawkins, Leonna Mitchell, Marquita Lister, Gabrielle Gilliam, Alexandria Crichlow, Christian Simmons, among other established artists and organizations.
Jasmine is not only a composer/vocalist, but an educator. She is the former Head of Compositional Studies and Jazz Voice Studies at Booker T Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas, TX. She holds her Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Music from Morgan State University in Baltimore Maryland. Her Master of Arts in Music was earned as a Composition student studying under Dr.James Lee III. She proved her musical prowess in her debut composition concert entitled “Reality Race and Religion” that took place on May 9th, 2018 in the Gilliam Concert Hall of the Carl J. Murphy Fine Arts Center. She was the very first composition major of Morgan State University, thus hosting the first composition recital, setting the bar high for those to follow. As a student in the Morgan State University Choir, she was privy to showcasing her work through the choir, who has performed her music in three continents and all over the United States. She held the esteemed pleasure of being a Graduate Teaching Assistant teaching Music Theory and Aural Skills to students of Morgan State University which prepared her well for teaching various levels of Music Theory including AP Music Theory in her career as a teacher. Her professional career in teaching lead her to educator honors such as National Young Arts Foundation Educator (5x recipient), Teacher Recognition award recipient from American Composer’s Forum; NextNotes High School Music Creator Competition, as well as partnering with AT&T Performing Arts Center in creating a composition competition for her students to compose an original piece for the acclaimed chandelier in the AT&T Performing Arts Center in Dallas, TX, home of the Dallas Opera.
For perusal inquiries, click here.
Video
“Resistance” performed by Fresno Philharmonic Orchestra
“Before Dawn” from Reality, Race, and Religion performed by Symphony Number 1
Press
"...comfortably tonal..." – By Tim Smith
Portraits: Douglass & Tubman – "The composer writes in a very direct, comfortably tonal manner that serves the texts well."
"... precisely imagined antiquity..." – The Washington Post
The Burning Bush – "The night closed with “The Burning Bush,” an opera from the Baltimore-based team of composer Jasmine Barnes and Joshua Banbury — and set in a surrealist version of that city’s long-ago vaudeville scene. While pianist Roderick Demmings Jr. stayed onstage to coax out the score’s precisely imagined antiquity, soprano Suzannah Waddington (as an allegorical MC) and baritone Daniel J. Smith (as a vaudevillian “invisible man”) carried the opera’s miniature acts right into the audience. It was a clever way of reflecting the spectacle made of violence against Black people (in this case, Freddie Gray), and inviting revision of the stories (and histories) too often consumed as entertainment."