Barbara Benary is an American 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...

 and ethnomusicologist specializing in Indonesian and Indian music

Music of India

The music of India includes multiple varieties of folk, popular, pop, classical music and R&B. India's classical music tradition, including Carnatic and Hindustani music, has a history spanning millennia and developed over several eras. It remains fundamental to the lives of Indians today as...

.

In 1976 she co-founded Gamelan Son of Lion

Gamelan Son of Lion

Gamelan Son of Lion is a new-music American gamelan ensemble based in New York City. The group was founded in 1976 by Barbara Benary , Philip Corner, and Daniel Goode. It is a composers' collective as well as repertory ensemble...

 with Philip Corner

Philip Corner

Philip Corner is an American composer, action musician, trombone/alphornist, sometime vocalist, pianist-improvisor, theorist-educator, graphic score designer, and visual artist, collage&assembleur, calligrapher.-Biography:After The High School of Music & Art in New York City, Philip Corner...

 and Daniel Goode

Daniel Goode

Daniel Goode is an American composer and clarinetist.Daniel Goode was born in New York City. After graduating in 1957 from Oberlin College, he studied composition at Columbia University with Henry Cowell and Otto Luening, receiving an MA 1962...

; she also constructed most of the group's instruments. Her major works have also included two shadow puppet operas: "Karna" and "The Story of Esther." She is married to the woodwind player and instrument designer Steven Silverstein.