Barry Seroff was born in Flushing, Queens on July 4th 1978. He earned his Bachelors at the Aaron Copland School of Music where he studied with some of the great minds of the twentieth century; theory with Joe Strauss, composition with Paul Alan Levi, Jeff Nichols, and Bruce Saylor, and musicology with Henry Burnett. At the same time outside of school, he studied classical flute with Michael Laderman and Petina Cole, modern and traditional jazz guitar with Joe Giglio and Bern Nix, and shakuhachi with Ronnie Nyogetsu Seldin.
Improvised music developed into one of his deepest musical passions through regular performances with musicians including William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Marc Ribot, Daniel Carter, Merry Fortune, and Ken Schalk, among others. It was in this setting that his musical voice matured, leading to the release of the critically acclaimed 27 New York Antisonnets’ with Little Ricky’s House of Chankletas, and the upcoming release A Pass Toward Solace with pianist Stefan Paolini, both on OKS Recordings of North America. He also runs an improvised music podcast, featuring a wide variety of top notch musicians from NYC to New Haven.
Aside from being an accomplished musician, Barry Seroff has also earned high accolades as a composer. His compositions range from traditional chamber ensembles and orchestras to more modern settings featuring electric guitar and drumset. His collaborations with poet Merry Fortune were performed at St. Marks Church, and eventually led to recordings with legendary guitarist Marc Ribot. He is also the winner of the Hubert Sukoff Award for Composition in 2006 and was awarded the AMC Composers Assistance Grant in 2009 for his cantata Democracy, which was premiered at Issue Project Room in March of 2010. His work has been premiered by the International Contemporary Ensemble, Second Instrumental Unit, New Haven Improvisers Collective, ThingNY and Anti-Social Music.
He received his Masters in composition at Queens College and continues to perform improvised music in and around NY. Further information can be found at his website; www.barryseroff.net, or www.myspace.com/barryseroff.
