Alec Goldfarb is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, composer, and Hindustani classical musician known for blending jazz, new music, and Indian classical traditions. A DownBeat Magazine award-winning composer, his music is described as "full of ingenious juxtapositions and twists" (The Wire), and unravels hidden meeting points between disparate sound cultures, revealing the intricate movement of traditions across time.

 

An exponent of the Senia-Maihar Gharana, Alec performs Hindustani classical music across the globe on the guitar using a novel synthesis of sarod and sitar technique. Under the guidance of senior gurus and through immersive training in India and the US, Alec has developed a unique voice that honors the tradition while expanding its expressive possibilities on a Western instrument. His performances feature deep alaap, intricate jod and jhala, and dynamic gats in a variety of talas, all rendered with a deep sense of raga bhaav. Alec’s work seeks to bridge cultural and musical boundaries, inviting global audiences into the profound world of Hindustani music through an instrument they may already know, yet in a form they have never heard before.

 

Alec Goldfarb served as the inaugural Composer-in-Residence for Jonah Bokaer Choreography in 2018, premiering original works at The Joyce Theater and venues across the East Coast. He has performed at leading institutions and festivals such as Roulette Intermedium, India Habitat Centre, the Darmstadt Ferienkurse, Bangalore International Center, Skanu Mezs (Latvia), Yellow Barn, Frequency Festival, NESCO Center (Mumbai), the Kimmel Center, the Dimenna Center, The Clark, Asia Society NYC, and The Jazz Gallery. Internationally, he has toured extensively across Southeast Asia, North Africa, South Asia, Europe, and the United States.

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A versatile collaborator and interpreter, Alec has premiered works by a wide range of composers including Vicente Hansen Atria, Matthew Schlomowitz, Kate Soper, Taylor Brook, Austin Wulliman, Ashkan Behzadi, and Joshua Mastel. He appears on the Deutscher Jazz Preis-winning album Orlando Furioso by Vicente Hansen Atria.

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He has performed with the JACK Quartet, Anthony Braxton and the Creative Music Orchestra at Darmstadt, John Wetton (King Crimson,) Steve Lehman, Patrick Bartley Jr., Immanuel Wilkins, Samir Chatterjee, Manik Khan, Utsav Lal, Kate Soper, Eric Wubbels, Dan Weiss, Mark Shim, Christian Lillinger, Pablo Held, Robert Landfermann, Adam O'Farrill, and Kim Cass, among others. His work reflects a deep commitment to musical dialogue across genres, traditions, and geographies.

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Recent and upcoming projects include The Tree of Heaven (progressive Baroque music for strings and continuo in Just Intonation), Dion Nataraja’s concerto for gamelan and guitar with the Javanese experimental ensemble Sandikala, stillness...seeping for solo guitar by Ashkan Behzadi, a double guitar concerto with Anthony Braxton’s Creative Music Orchestra, Keir GoGwilt’s Zarabanda Variations, the Vex Collection, Mat Muntz’s Phantom Islands, and Phillip Golub’s Abiding Memory.

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Alec’s 2024 release Fire Lapping at the Creek has garnered widespread critical acclaim. As the NYC Jazz Record wrote, “In the varied sound worlds that composer Alec Goldfarb has explored, the sonic possibilities seem boundless.” The album has been featured in The Wire, Uncut, DownBeat, Nowhere Street, A Closer Listen, and more.

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Alec holds a Master’s degree in Music Composition from CUNY Brooklyn College and dual B.A.s in Music Composition/Theory and Philosophy from the University of Illinois. He is an alumnus of the Kimmel Center’s Creative Music Program, has taught at NYC Guitar School, and is the owner of Park Slope Guitar School in Brooklyn, NYC.