Lesley Barber
Encyclopedia
Lesley Barber is a Canadian composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of music for film, theatre, chamber and orchestral ensembles and is also a conductor, pianist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. Barber is best known for composing the film scores You Can Count on Me
You Can Count on Me
You Can Count on Me is a 2000 American drama film starring Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Rory Culkin, and Matthew Broderick. Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, it tells the story of Sammy, a single mother living in a small town, and her complicated relationships with family and friends...

, Mansfield Park
Mansfield Park (film)
Mansfield Park is a 1999 British romantic comedy-drama film loosely based on Jane Austen's novel of the same name, written and directed by Patricia Rozema. The film differs sharply from the original novel in many respects. For example, the life of Jane Austen is incorporated into the film and the...

, Hysterical Blindness, When Night is Falling
When Night is Falling
When Night is Falling is a 1995 Canadian drama film directed by Patricia Rozema.-Plot:The film stars Pascale Bussières as Camille Baker, a university literature professor at a religious college struggling with both her tenure-track career and her troubled relationship with fellow professor Martin...

, and composing music for the animated television series Little Bear
Little Bear (TV series)
Maurice Sendak's Little Bear is a Canadian children's television series starring a Little Bear voiced by Kristin Fairlie. Originally produced by Nelvana for Nickelodeon, it currently airs on Treehouse TV in Canada and Nick Jr. in the United States. A direct-to-video full-length feature film was...

.

Biography

Born, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

,1962 Lesley Barber started composing at the age of ten, won several young composer awards and graduated with a Master’s degree in Music Composition from The University of Toronto in 1988, studying with electro-acoustic music pioneer, composer Gustav Ciamaga
Gustav Ciamaga
Gustav Ciamaga was a Canadian composer, music educator, and writer. An associate of the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Canadian League of Composers, he was best known for his compositions of electronic music, although he produced several non-electronic works. His compositions have been...

 and composer Lothar Klein.

After university, Barber spent several years scoring for the alternative theatre scene in Toronto, creating music for over 20 theatre productions. Notable theatre works include Brad Fraser
Brad Fraser
Brad Fraser is a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and cultural commentator. He is one of the most widely produced Canadian playwrights both in Canada and internationally. Fraser's plays typically feature a harsh yet comical view of contemporary life in Canada, including frank depictions of...

’s Unidentified Human Remains and The True Nature of Love George F. Walker
George F. Walker
George F. Walker, CM is a Canadian playwright and screenwriter. He is one of Canada's most prolific playwrights, and also one of the most widely produced Canadian dramatists both in Canada and internationally.-Early years:...

’s Love and Anger, Nothing Sacred, Escape from Happiness
Escape from Happiness
Escape From Happiness is a play by Canadian playwright George F. Walker. It was first produced in July, 1991 in New York City. It was first produced in Canada at the Factory Theatre in February of 1992. It is the final installment of a trilogy of plays written by Walker: The East End Plays. This...

, and Michel Garneau’s The Warriors. The latter two productions received Dora Mavor Moore Award
Dora Mavor Moore Award
The Dora Mavor Moore Award is an award presented annually by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts which honours theatre, dance, and opera productions in Toronto. Named after Dora Mavor Moore, who helped establish Canadian professional theatre, the award was established on December 13, 1978...

s for Outstanding Original Score.

As a classical composer Barber has been commissioned by artists such as pianist Eve Egoyan, The Canadian Electronic Ensemble, Hemispheres Orchestra, and serving as Young Composer in Residence at the Festival of the Sound, and Winnipeg’s New Music Festival. Works include Long White Line (for orchestra), Rhythmic Voodoo (percussion and electronica). Music for a Lonely Zamboni (piano trio) and Marshland (string quartet). Barber composed for Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

 for the television series Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma
Yo-Yo Ma is an American cellist, virtuoso, and orchestral composer. He has received multiple Grammy Awards, the National Medal of Arts in 2001 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011...

: Inspired by Bach
Inspired by Bach
Inspired by Bach, a Sony Classical and Rhombus Media production as part of Sony Classical celebrates Bach series, presents contemporary cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing the six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach in collaboration with artists from different disciplines, in a set of...

.

Barber has cited as musical influences Takemitsu
Toru Takemitsu
was a Japanese composer and writer on aesthetics and music theory. Largely self-taught, Takemitsu possessed consummate skill in the subtle manipulation of instrumental and orchestral timbre...

, Corigliano
John Corigliano
John Corigliano is an American composer of classical music and a teacher of music. He is a distinguished professor of music at Lehman College in the City University of New York.-Biography:...

, Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...

, Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Gubaidulina
Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina, is a Russian composer of half Russian, half Tatar ethnicity.Gubaidulina's music is marked by the use of unusual instrumental combinations...

, Steve Reich
Steve Reich
Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

, PJ Harvey
PJ Harvey
Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...

, Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...

, Carter Burwell
Carter Burwell
Carter Benedict Burwell is an American composer of film scores.-Life and career:Burwell was born in New York City, the son of Natalie , a math teacher, and Charles Burwell, who founded Thaibok Fabrics, Ltd...

, Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone
Ennio Morricone, Grand Officer OMRI, , is an Italian composer and conductor, who wrote music to more than 500 motion pictures and television series, in a career lasting over 50 years. His scores have been included in over 20 award-winning films as well as several symphonic and choral pieces...

, and Philip Glass
Philip Glass
Philip Glass is an American composer. He is considered to be one of the most influential composers of the late 20th century and is widely acknowledged as a composer who has brought art music to the public .His music is often described as minimalist, along with...

.

Barber’s work on film scores include Kenneth Lonergan
Kenneth Lonergan
Kenneth Lonergan is an American playwright, screenwriter, and director.-Background and education:Born in the Bronx, New York City, New York, Lonergan began writing in high school at the Walden School .His first play, The Rennings Children, was chosen for the Young Playwright's Festival in...

’s Academy Award winning feature film You Can Count on Me
You Can Count on Me
You Can Count on Me is a 2000 American drama film starring Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Rory Culkin, and Matthew Broderick. Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, it tells the story of Sammy, a single mother living in a small town, and her complicated relationships with family and friends...

, Mira Nair
Mira Nair
Mira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...

’s Emmy
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 and Golden Globe
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...

 award winning Hysterical Blindness (starring Uma Thurman
Uma Thurman
Uma Karuna Thurman is an American actress and model. She has performed in leading roles in a variety of films, ranging from romantic comedies and dramas to science fiction and action movies. Among her best-known roles are those in the Quentin Tarantino films Pulp Fiction and Kill Bill...

 and Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands is an American actress of film, stage and television. The four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner is best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, in two of which, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, she gave Academy...

), Patricia Rozema
Patricia Rozema
Patricia Rozema is a Canadian film director and screenwriter.-Life and career:Rozema was born in Kingston, Ontario and raised in Sarnia, Ontario. Her parents, Jacoba Berandina and Jan Rozema, were Dutch Calvinists. Television was severely restricted and she didn’t go to a movie theatre until she...

’s Mansfield Park
Mansfield Park (film)
Mansfield Park is a 1999 British romantic comedy-drama film loosely based on Jane Austen's novel of the same name, written and directed by Patricia Rozema. The film differs sharply from the original novel in many respects. For example, the life of Jane Austen is incorporated into the film and the...

 and When Night is Falling
When Night is Falling
When Night is Falling is a 1995 Canadian drama film directed by Patricia Rozema.-Plot:The film stars Pascale Bussières as Camille Baker, a university literature professor at a religious college struggling with both her tenure-track career and her troubled relationship with fellow professor Martin...

, and the award-winning children’s classic television animated series Little Bear
Little Bear (TV series)
Maurice Sendak's Little Bear is a Canadian children's television series starring a Little Bear voiced by Kristin Fairlie. Originally produced by Nelvana for Nickelodeon, it currently airs on Treehouse TV in Canada and Nick Jr. in the United States. A direct-to-video full-length feature film was...

 with Maurice Sendak
Maurice Sendak
Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...

. She has also worked with directors Wayne Wang
Wayne Wang
Wayne Wang is a Chinese American film director.-Biography:Wang was born and raised in Hong Kong, and named after his father's favorite movie star, John Wayne...

 and Boaz Yakin
Boaz Yakin
Boaz Yakin is an American screenwriter and film director based in New York City. Yakin studied filmmaking at New York City College and New York University.-Life and career:...

. Barber has recorded scores in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...

, New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, and Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...

 and worked with Miramax
Miramax Films
Miramax Films is an American entertainment company known for distributing independent and foreign films. For its first 14 years the company was privately owned by its founders, Bob and Harvey Weinstein...

, New Line
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema, often simply referred to as New Line, is an American film studio. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye and Michael Lynne as a film distributor, later becoming an independent film studio. It became a subsidiary of Time Warner in 1996 and was merged with larger sister studio Warner...

, Focus Features
Focus Features
Focus Features is the art house films division of NBC Universal's Universal Pictures, and acts as both a producer and distributor for its own films and a distributor for foreign films....

, Nickelodeon, Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

, and Home Box Office
Home Box Office
HBO, short for Home Box Office, is an American premium cable television network, owned by Time Warner. , HBO's programming reaches 28.2 million subscribers in the United States, making it the second largest premium network in America . In addition to its U.S...

 amongst others.
  • The Moth Diaries
    The Moth Diaries
    The Moth Diaries is the debut novel of Rachel Klein, published in 2002.-Plot summary:At an exclusively girls' boarding school, a sixteen year-old girl records her most intimate thoughts in a diary. The object of her growing obsession is her roommate, Lucy Blake, and Lucy's friendship with their...

     (2011)
  • A Child's Garden of Poetry (2010)
  • Girls on Top
    Girls on Top
    Girls on Top is BoA's 5th album in Korean. A "MOTO" repackaging was released on August 25, 2005. Girls on Top has sold 115,000 copies in 2005. It placed #10 on the sales for albums of that year...

     (2010)
  • Victoria Day
    Victoria Day
    Victoria Day is a federal Canadian public holiday celebrated on the last Monday before May 25, in honour of Queen Victoria's birthday. The date is also, simultaneously, that on which the current reigning Canadian sovereign's official birthday is recognized...

     (2009)
  • Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
    Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
    Kit Kittredge: An American Girl is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by Patricia Rozema. The screenplay by Ann Peacock focuses on the American Girl character Kit Kittredge, who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio during the Great Depression...

     (2008) (additional music)
  • Death in Love
    Death in Love
    Death in Love is a psychosexual-thriller about a love affair between a Jewish woman and a doctor overseeing human experimentation at a Nazi German concentration camp, and the impact this has on her sons' lives in the 1990s. The film debuted in 2008. It was written and directed by Boaz Yakin.The...

     (2008)
  • A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
    A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
    A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is a 2007 drama feature film directed by Wayne Wang starring Yu Feihong, Henry O, Vida Ghahremani and Pasha Lychnikoff, adapted from the short story by Yiyun Li and shot on a high-end high-definition video camera...

     (2007)
  • Comeback Season (2006)
  • We Don't Live Here Anymore
    We Don't Live Here Anymore
    We Don't Live Here Anymore is a 2004 drama film directed by John Curran. It is based on the short stories We Don't Live Here Anymore and Adultery by Andre Dubus.Set in Washington state, the film was shot around Vancouver.-Cast:...

     (2004) (additional music)
  • Maurice Sendak
    Maurice Sendak
    Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...

    ’s Seven Little Monsters
    Seven Little Monsters
    Seven Little Monsters is a children's television program produced by Suzhou Hong Yang Cartoon Co. Ltd. for Nelvana, and is about a family of seven monsters and their mother. The series is created by Maurice Sendak, and directed by Neil Affleck, Lynn Reist, and Glen Sylvester. Each monster is named...

     (2000–2003) TV Series (all episodes)
  • The Real Jane Austen (2002) (TV)
  • Marion Bridge (2002)
  • Hysterical Blindness (2002) (TV)
  • The Little Bear Movie
    The Little Bear Movie
    The Little Bear Movie is a film based on the television series Little Bear, which in turn is based on the book series of the same name which was written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, and produced by Nelvana Limited for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies...

     (2001)
  • You Can Count on Me
    You Can Count on Me
    You Can Count on Me is a 2000 American drama film starring Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Rory Culkin, and Matthew Broderick. Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, it tells the story of Sammy, a single mother living in a small town, and her complicated relationships with family and friends...

     (2000)
  • This Might Be Good (2000)
  • Mansfield Park
    Mansfield Park (film)
    Mansfield Park is a 1999 British romantic comedy-drama film loosely based on Jane Austen's novel of the same name, written and directed by Patricia Rozema. The film differs sharply from the original novel in many respects. For example, the life of Jane Austen is incorporated into the film and the...

     (1999)
  • Luminous Motion (1998)
  • A Price Above Rubies
    A Price Above Rubies
    A Price Above Rubies is a 1998 film directed by Boaz Yakin, starring Renée Zellweger as a young woman who finds it difficult to conform to the restrictions imposed on her by her community. Reviews of the movie were mixed, though generally positive to Zellweger's performance. The title is a biblical...

     (1998)
  • Los Locos
    Los Locos
    Los Locos is a 1997 Western film written by and starring Mario Van Peebles. It was directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and also stars Melora Walters, René Auberjonois, Paul Lazar and Danny Trejo...

    : Posse Rides Again (1997)
  • Yo-Yo Ma Inspired by Bach
    Inspired by Bach
    Inspired by Bach, a Sony Classical and Rhombus Media production as part of Sony Classical celebrates Bach series, presents contemporary cellist Yo-Yo Ma performing the six Suites for Unaccompanied Cello by Johann Sebastian Bach in collaboration with artists from different disciplines, in a set of...

     - Bach Cello Suite #6: Six Gestures (1997) TV series
  • Turning April (1996)
  • What's His Face (1995)
  • When Night Is Falling
    When Night is Falling
    When Night is Falling is a 1995 Canadian drama film directed by Patricia Rozema.-Plot:The film stars Pascale Bussières as Camille Baker, a university literature professor at a religious college struggling with both her tenure-track career and her troubled relationship with fellow professor Martin...

     (1995)
  • Little Bear
    Little Bear (TV series)
    Maurice Sendak's Little Bear is a Canadian children's television series starring a Little Bear voiced by Kristin Fairlie. Originally produced by Nelvana for Nickelodeon, it currently airs on Treehouse TV in Canada and Nick Jr. in the United States. A direct-to-video full-length feature film was...

     (1995) TV series (all 65 episodes)

Music Department

  • Victoria Day
    Victoria Day (film)
    Victoria Day is a film directed and written by David Bezmozgis. It is being produced by Markham Street Films. The film stars Mark Rendall in the lead role, as well as Holly Deveaux, Sergiy Kotelenets, Nataliya Alyexeyenko, John Mavrogiannis, and Scott Beaudin....

     (2009) conductor, orchestrator
  • Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
    Kit Kittredge: An American Girl
    Kit Kittredge: An American Girl is a 2008 American comedy-drama film directed by Patricia Rozema. The screenplay by Ann Peacock focuses on the American Girl character Kit Kittredge, who lives in Cincinnati, Ohio during the Great Depression...

     (2008) orchestrator
  • A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
    A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
    A Thousand Years of Good Prayers is a 2007 drama feature film directed by Wayne Wang starring Yu Feihong, Henry O, Vida Ghahremani and Pasha Lychnikoff, adapted from the short story by Yiyun Li and shot on a high-end high-definition video camera...

     (2007) conductor, orchestrator
  • Comeback Season (2006) orchestrator
  • Being Julia
    Being Julia
    Being Julia is a 2004 drama film with comic undertones directed by István Szabó and starring Annette Bening and Jeremy Irons. The screenplay by Ronald Harwood is based on the 1937 novel Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham...

     (2004) song producer
  • Maurice Sendak
    Maurice Sendak
    Maurice Bernard Sendak is an American writer and illustrator of children's literature. He is best known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, published in 1963.-Early life:...

    ’s Seven Little Monsters
    Seven Little Monsters
    Seven Little Monsters is a children's television program produced by Suzhou Hong Yang Cartoon Co. Ltd. for Nelvana, and is about a family of seven monsters and their mother. The series is created by Maurice Sendak, and directed by Neil Affleck, Lynn Reist, and Glen Sylvester. Each monster is named...

     (2000–2003) conductor, orchestrator
  • Marion Bridge (2002) orchestrator
  • Hysterical Blindness (2002) (TV) conductor, orchestrator
  • The Little Bear Movie
    The Little Bear Movie
    The Little Bear Movie is a film based on the television series Little Bear, which in turn is based on the book series of the same name which was written by Else Holmelund Minarik and illustrated by Maurice Sendak, and produced by Nelvana Limited for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies...

     (2001) orchestrator
  • You Can Count on Me
    You Can Count on Me
    You Can Count on Me is a 2000 American drama film starring Laura Linney, Mark Ruffalo, Rory Culkin, and Matthew Broderick. Written and directed by Kenneth Lonergan, it tells the story of Sammy, a single mother living in a small town, and her complicated relationships with family and friends...

     (2000) orchestrator
  • Mansfield Park
    Mansfield Park (film)
    Mansfield Park is a 1999 British romantic comedy-drama film loosely based on Jane Austen's novel of the same name, written and directed by Patricia Rozema. The film differs sharply from the original novel in many respects. For example, the life of Jane Austen is incorporated into the film and the...

     (1999) orchestrator
  • Luminous Motion (1998) (conductor) orchestrator
  • A Price Above Rubies
    A Price Above Rubies
    A Price Above Rubies is a 1998 film directed by Boaz Yakin, starring Renée Zellweger as a young woman who finds it difficult to conform to the restrictions imposed on her by her community. Reviews of the movie were mixed, though generally positive to Zellweger's performance. The title is a biblical...

     (1998) orchestrator
  • Turning April (1996) conductor, orchestrator
  • When Night Is Falling
    When Night is Falling
    When Night is Falling is a 1995 Canadian drama film directed by Patricia Rozema.-Plot:The film stars Pascale Bussières as Camille Baker, a university literature professor at a religious college struggling with both her tenure-track career and her troubled relationship with fellow professor Martin...

     (1995) conductor, orchestrator

External links

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