Biographical Note
Seymour Barab was born on January 9, 1921, in Chicago, Illinois. He took piano lessons at an early age and began playing the organ in a local church at age 14. He attended Lane Tech College Prep High School in Chicago and studied cello with various teachers, including Edmund Kurtz, then principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. In 1938, while still in high school, Barab co-founded the New Music Group of Chicago with former classmate Ben Weber and George Perle to promote and perform the music of contemporary composers. Barab did not attend college. After high school, he performed with a number of symphony orchestras, including those in Indianapolis, Cleveland, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. He served in the Navy during World War II and was stationed at the Philadelphia Navy Yard as a musician. In New York, he performed with the house orchestra of the American Broadcasting Company and Columbia Broadcasting System, followed by tenures as the principal cellist of the Portland Oregon Symphony Orchestra and the Brooklyn Philharmonic. In 1952, he helped to found the New York Pro Musica Antiqua, playing viola da gamba with the group, and in 1965 he became the founding cellist of the Composers String Quartet. He also worked as a studio musician during the 1970s and 1980s and was a longtime member of the Philip Glass Ensemble, playing on multiple noteworthy recordings.
In 1950, Barab travelled to Paris to record music for Rene Leibowitz, and while there discovered a love for composing, writing a prolific number of songs and other vocal music. His song cycle, "A Child's Garden of Verses," was recorded by countertenor Russell Oberlin in 1953 and helped to secure Barab a position at Rutgers teaching composition. His first published work, "Four Songs," was released in 1955. From vocal music he progressed to operas. While teaching at Black Mountain College in North Carolina, he composed his first operas, Chanticleer and A Game of Chance. One of his earliest operas, Little Red Riding Hood, for which he also wrote the libretto, was written for Winifred Leventritt's "Young Audiences" program. His first full-length opera, Phillip Marshall, was performed at Chautauqua, New York and nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Most of Barab's operatic works are comedies and many are designed for young audiences. He also wrote a large number of chamber works for various instrumentations. In 1998, he earned a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Opera Association. Barab died in New York City on June 28, 2014.