Edward Barnes studied music composition at the Juilliard School with composers Vincent Persichetti and David Diamond, and at Dartington Hall in the United Kingdom with composer-conductor Sir Peter Maxwell Davies.
[4] He produced the 2009 concert version of Kurt Weill-Ira Gershwin's operetta, The Firebrand of Florence, at the newly renovated Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, featuring Nathan Gunn, Anna Christy, Victoria Clark, Terrence Mann and David Pittu, to great critical acclaim.
[5] In March 2010, he produced MasterVoices's Carnegie Hall concert version of Ricky Ian Gordon and Michael Korie's opera, The Grapes of Wrath, starring Jane Fonda, Christine Ebersole, Victoria Clark, Nathan Gunn and Steven Pasquale.
Also for MasterVoices, he produced the January 2011 Lincoln Center performances of Knickerbocker Holiday by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson, starring Kelli O'Hara and Victor Garber, as well as the live cast album of the same released by Sh-K-Boom/Ghostlight Records.
[11] He has continued to work as an independent producer, with projects including A Coffin in Egypt by composer Ricky Ian Gordon for Lincoln Center's American Songbook series, starring Frederica von Stade.