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.

​

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

​​

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, Phillip Golub, Samir Chatterjee, Zuheb Ahmed Khan, Utsav Lal, Eric Wubbels, Dan Weiss, and Christian Lillinger. 

​

Recent projects include Shadows (2025, Long Echo Records), an album weaving together Southeast Asian musical traditions, experimental jazz, and intricate microtonal and just intonation practices; Litanies (2026), a recording of Hindustani classical music performed on electric guitar; and The Tree of Heaven from Firmament (2026, Gold Bolus Recordings), an extended work for harpsichord and strings exploring historical temperaments and just intonation. He also leads the Alec Goldfarb Quartet, an ensemble dedicated to his original compositions at the intersection of contemporary jazz, chamber music, and experimental music. As a performer and interpreter, his recent projects include Dion Nataraja’s concerto for gamelan and guitar with the Javanese experimental ensemble Sandikala, a double guitar concerto with Anthony Braxton’s Creative Music Orchestra, and collaborations with composers Ashkan Behzadi, Keir GoGwilt, and Phillip Golub.

​

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.

​

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 has served on the faculty of CMI and as guest faculty at NMOP, and has led workshops at Manhattan School of Music and The New School. He is an alumnus of the Kimmel Center’s Creative Music Program, the founder of Park Slope Guitar School in Brooklyn, and the author of Tuning the Ear: Progressive Ear Training in Just Intonation (ATG Editions, 2026).