Barden (b. 1980, Cleveland, Ohio, USA) studied composition with Lewis Nielson, Rebecca Saunders, Mathias Spahlinger, Jörg Widmann, and Roger Redgate. He holds degrees from the Oberlin Conservatory (USA), Hochschule für Musik Freiburg (Germany), and Goldsmiths (UK). His compositions have received numerous international awards including a Composers' Prize from the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation, the GEMA German Music Author's Prize, a scholarship to the Darmstadt Summer Courses, residencies at the Berlin Academy of the Arts and the German Studies Center in Venice, as well as the sole annual Commission Prize from the Bavarian Academy of Fine Arts in 2016. His works are regularly performed by leading musicians such as Klangforum Wien, Ensemble intercontemporain, ensemble recherche, the Mivos Quartet, KNM Berlin, Ensemble Mosaik, Nicolas Hodges, the Arditti Quartet, and many others at contemporary music festivals such as the Donaueschingen Festival, Wien Modern, and the Witten Festival. His first portrait CD is available on Col Legno (2016) and a second will be released on Wergo in 2020. He lives in Berlin.