Ben Yarmolinsky
Composer, Guitarist, Singer-Songwriter, Teacher…
This site is part of an effort to tell the world about what I do and to solicit worthwhile new projects and commissions.
Thank you for your interest in my work.
Ben Yarmolinsky’s Compositions Fall Into Three Broad Categories
THEATRICAL WORKS Including opera, oratorio, and musical theater.
VOCAL WORKS Including choral music, art songs, and popular songs.
INSTRUMENTAL WORKS Including concert music, film, dance, and incidental music.
What Critics Are Saying
“Yarmolinsky, a kind of court jester among New York composers, expresses his seriousness in oblique ways. One is to set the U.S. Constitution for four singers and piano, a task to which he brings a very Virgil Thomson-like mix of classical, folk, and minimalist influences.”
— Russell Platt, The New Yorker
“I most liked Ben Yarmolinsky’s songs... The songs had natural vocal lines and very well-made piano parts that had something to say yet remained accompaniments.”
— Will Crutchfield, The New York Times
“April 15th Blues is a tiny chamber piece for two singers and a quartet on the grimly fascinating topic of paying one’s taxes. I suppose it is really a chamber musical rather than a chamber opera, but who cares? It’s perfectly delightful.
— John Story, Fanfare
“The evening’s most interesting idea [was] an operatic setting by Ben Yarmolinsky of the Anita F. Hill-Clarence A. Thomas hearing…”
— Bernard Holland, The New York Times
Selected Works
The Constitution: A Secular Oratorio
A 100-minute work designed to unify musicians and audiences in a celebration of our foundational charter.
The Subject: A Psychiatric Opera
The second of three operatic collaborations with Charles Bernstein, The Subject dramatizes a 50-minute psychiatric session.
April 15th Blues
A 30-minute operetta on the subject of our national tax day,with book and lyrics by the composer