Barry Sharp is a Philadelphia-based composer and musician with a love for industrial ambiences and sounds in stretched time. Through his work these sounds are sculpted into new harmonic and (sometimes) melodic soundscapes. His improvised solo-show, Sounding Spaces, integrates drone versions of these sounds with acoustic instruments in a cathartic and psychedelic performance experience.
Barry is a member of the Song Sessions Collective, a group of four improvisors who perform an ever-changing work based on the structure of whale songs. The collective won a grant from New Music USA in 2019 and a residency at MISE-EN_Place, Bushwick in 2018. He also performs with composer Sergio Cote in the experimental duo etc, [ee-tee-see]. Their sound-based-experimental-performance-art involves creating pieces through a rebellious and democratic approach to sound.
Barry has been performed by ensembles including JACK Quartet, International Contemporary Ensemble, TAK Ensemble, Amalgama, Bienen Early/Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, [Switch~ Ensemble], sTem, The Princeton Singers, OSSIA Ensemble, Un/Pitched, Ithaca New Music Collective, Cornell Orchestras, Cornell Wind Symphony, and Cornell Chamber Singers. His accolades include a New Music USA Project Grant, Cornell Council for the Arts Biennial Grant, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers Award, The American Prize, Cornell Council for the Arts, New Music on the Point, Henry and Parker Pelzer Award in Composition, and the Barbara Cochran Breazeale Fellowship.
Barry received his D.M.A. in composition from Cornell University where he studied with Kevin Ernste, Marianthi Papalexandri-Alexandri, and Roberto Sierra. He also holds degrees in music from Murray State University (B.M.) and the University of Iowa (M.A.). Barry currently teaches his own private composition studio and works as a dog walker in South Philadelphia.