Edward Barnes

Edward Barnes is an award-winning composer, producer and non-profit executive leader. A graduate of the Juilliard School, he is the winner of Guggenheim and NEA Fellowships, and the Stephen Sondheim Award for “the creation of innovative musical theater”. His opera, musical theater and theater scores have been produced around the world by companies including L.A. Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Lincoln Center Theater Company, Minnesota Opera, Mark Taper Forum, San Francisco Mime Troupe, Welsh National Opera, Opera Company of the Philippines, Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis and many more. As a producer, Edward’s credits include Tracy Letts’ play, Superior Donuts, on Broadway, Ricky Ian Gordon’s The Grapes of Wrath at Carnegie Hall (starring Jane Fonda, Nathan Gunn and Victoria Clark), Gordon’s A Coffin In Egypt (starring Frederica von Stade) for Lincoln Center’s American Songbook, and cast recordings of Kurt Weill’s Knickerbocker Holiday (Ghostlight/Sh-k-boom Records) and The Road of Promise (Naxos Records). He additionally has been Associate Producer for Teatro Paseo La Plaza in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and music producer of radio shows for Night Kitchen Radio Theater, SiriusXM, and WYNC/The Greene Space in New York City.  

A leading non-profit administrator, Edward has served as Executive Director of Gotham Chamber Opera, Producing Director of MasterVoices, and Managing Director of American Lyric Theater. A popular teacher and public speaker, he has for 10 years led sold-out seminars on musical theater and popular music at RoundTable Cultural Seminars in New York and is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School.