From: Baltimore, Maryland. LA Opera: Love and Light (world premiere as part of Russell Thomas's recital on February 25, 2023)
Jasmine Barnes is a composer/vocalist who 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, she is managed by UIA talent for her work as a composer, is a resident artist in American Lyric Theater's Composer Librettist Development Program, and has held residencies as a composer fellow at Chautauqua Opera 2021 season, as well as a residency with All Classical Portland.
She has been privileged to be commissioned by numerous organizations such as the Washington National Opera (in celebration of the Kennedy Center's 50th year anniversary), Bare Opera, Aspen Summer Music Festival, Baltimore Choral Arts, Resonance Ensemble, Tapestry Choir, CityMusic Cleveland, LyricFest Philadelphia, Burleigh Music Festival, Symphony Number One and Baltimore Musicales, among others. She is beginning to be noticed for her work. Her 10-minute opera The Late Walk, commissioned by Bare Opera as a part of the Decameron Opera Coalition, has been archived in the Library of Congress. She was featured in The Baltimore Sun in an article written by Elizabeth Nonemaker. as well as an interview in the Washington Post about The Burning Bush, a short opera written with Joshua Banbury about Freddie Gray for Washington National Opera.
She was named the recipient of the Florence Price Award for Composition from Pricefest, named a winner of the International Women's Brass Conference Emerging Composer Competition, 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 the 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, Leona Mitchell, Marquita Lister, Gabrielle Gilliam, Alexandria Crichlow and Christian Simmons, among other established artists and organizations. Some upcoming premieres include pieces created for the voices of Lawrence Brownlee, Will Liverman, Russell Thomas and Helena Brown.
She is part of a network of composers called "The Blacknificent Seven" along with Shawn Okpebholo, Jessie Montgomery, Damien Geter, Dave Ragland, Joel Thompson and Carlos Simon. This dynamic group of composers act as a support group to each other and are even working on an upcoming project together.
Learn more at JasmineBarnesComposer.com.
