Drogin, Barry (Jay)

Drogin, Barry (Jay), American composer and electrical engineer; b. Oyster Bay, N.Y., May 2, 1960. After taking theater and music courses at Emerson Coll. (1977–79), he was trained as an electrical engineer, earning degrees from The Cooper Union in N.Y. (B.E., 1983; M.E., 1986). He also also attended music classes there, and studied privately (1977–83) with Mark Kroll and Scott Wheeler in Boston, Elie Siegmeister in Great Neck, N.Y., and Gil Robbins and Laurie Spiegel in N.Y. His awards and commissions include a grant from Meet the Composer for his The Clean Platter for Chorus, String Quartet, and Piano (1983). In 1988 he founded the self-publishing co., Not Nice Music, which sponsored a

competition, ’The Lullaby Project/7 in 1997. For his Jewish compositions, Drogin uses the pseudonym Baruch Skeer.

Works

DRAMATIC Opera : Love and Idols/A Jewish Opera for 4 Voices and Grand Piano (1984). I n c i d e n t a l M u s i c : Working All Day for Voice and Piano, incidental music to the composer’s play Fast Food (1977); Twelfth Night, songs and incidental music for Voice and Piano to Shakespeare’s play (1978); The Good Doctor for Piano, incidental music to Neil Simon’s play (1979); Fornication Makes the World Go Round for Piano, incidental music for Brett Somers’s play Anterooms (1983); Peter Had a Plan for 5 Voices and Piano (1983). D a n c e : Butterfly Dream for Chamber Orch. (1981); Typhoid Mary for Alto and Piano (1988). CHAMBER : Piano Variations (1980); Chamber Music, “little concerto for amateur ensemble” (1982); Duet for Flute and Bass Clarinet (1982; originally for Flute and Trombone); Perceptions for Electric Keyboard (1983); /./. Comes to Cooper, oboe sonatina (1989). VOCAL: Shma for Tenor, Chorus, and Organ (1978); Fugitive Configurations for Chorus (1981); To A Lady Passing Time Better Left Unpassed for Chorus (1981); The Clean Platter for Chorus, String Quartet, and Piano, after Ogden Nash (1983); Love Poems from the Hebrew for Soprano and Piano (1985); Alamo! for Solo Voice (1995; rev. 1998); Yisroayl B’Mitzroyim (Israel in Egypt), oratorio for Soloists and Chorus (1999).

—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire