Alec Goldfarb is a DownBeat Magazine Award-winning guitarist, composer, and Hindustani classical musician based in Brooklyn. A 2026 ACC Fellow, his music has been described as "full of ingenious juxtapositions and twists" (The Wire), and his work as displaying "adventurous compositional virtuosity" (The New York City Jazz Record). Drawing from disparate musical histories, he creates works that are equal parts research and alchemy.

 

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 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  Ashkan Behzadi, Matthew Schlomowitz, Kate Soper, Taylor Brook, Austin Wulliman, 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, Mark Dresser, Samir Chatterjee, Manik Khan, Utsav Lal, Eric Wubbels, Dan Weiss, and Christian Lillinger. 

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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.