John La Barbera's experience includes roles as performer, composer, arranger, producer, author and educator. ​​From Classical to Jazz, from Medieval to Flamenco, from the music of the Renaissance to Italian Folk Songs to the captivating rhythms and melodies of Brazil – In the words of the Woodstock Times " La Barbera is North American born with the dance of music in his fingertips.. His articulations on either instrument, intimate and classically fine, are filled with the light of a born Latino."

 

Composing Awards and Commissions:

The Jerome Foundation, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Martin Gruss Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, The Italian Oral History Institute and finalist in the Jazz category of the John Lennon Songwriting Competition.

Awarded for his extraordinary role in the transmission and translation of Italian oral traditions from The Italian Oral History Institute, La Barbera is recognized as a pioneer in reviving Southern Italian folk music and one of the first transcribers of it in America. He receieved the 2016 Esposito Visting Faculty Fellow Award from UMass, Dartmouth. Because of his expertise in Italian traditional music, La Barbera has been a valuable resource for both film and theater.

Credits as composer:

 

Film score : the Academy Award Nominated feature documentary: Children of Fate, (1992);The Bounty Hunter (Columbia Pictures, 2012); Drifting, (2014); Finding The Mother Lode: Italian Immigration in California (2013); Sister Italy (2012); Sacco and Vanzetti (2008); Pane Amaro (2008); What's up Scarlet (2005) Neapolitan Heart -Cuore Napolitano (2000); La Festa (1996) and Tarantella (1994).

 

Theater:

Souls of Naples, (Theater for a New Audience) starring John and Aida Turturro; Kaos, (New York Theater Workshop) directed by choreographer Marta Clarke; productions for LaMaMa E.T.C. with Dario D'Ambrosi's  Teatro Patologico di Roma; Shauna Kanter's Retzach, The Homecoming Project, Garcia Lorca's Yerma; and

Liz Swados' Bible Women (arranger).

Folk Operas : Stabat Mater: Donna di Paradiso; The Voyage of the Black Madonna; and The Dance of the Ancient Spider.

Dance Companies:  The Art of Motion Dance Company, in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Published Works:

Italian Folk Music for Mandolin, 2012. Mel Bay Publications

Traditional Southern Italian Mandolin and Fiddle Tunes, Mel Bay  2009;

The Marimbaba Suite- for percussion quartet. Bachovich Music Publications, 2009.

Danza del Fuego- for solo marimba, Bachovich Music Publications, 2009;

 “Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans”, Palgrave-MacMillan. 2009.
 

Recordings:

His first professional recording was with Jazz flutist/composer Lloyd McNeil in 1978 on the album Tori, together with Buster Williams, Dom Salvador, Victor Lewis, Nana Vasconcellos and Dom Om Ramao. Also in 1978 he recorded his first Italian album "La Terra Del Rimorso"  in MIlano, Italy  with the Pugliese folk group Pupi E Fresedde. Since then he has recorded numerous albums of traditional Southern Italian folk music including;  Addo t’a Pizzicato `a Tarantella; Sulillo Mio; Dea Fortuna; Earth, Sun and Moon; Global Celebrations; In The Labyrinth; Mediterranean Lullaby; Papa’s Lullaby; Mother Earth Lullaby and American Lullaby.

He has appeared on many recording projects with many great artist including folk singer Judy Collins, rock drummer John Densmore of THE DOORS,  jazz saxophonist Mark Gross and the late jazz pianist Mulgrew Miller on the CD "Riddle of The Sphinx" .

His  music has been recorded by jazz harmonica player Enrico Granafei; jazz and rock violinist  Joe Deninzon; Ethos Percussion Ensemble; percussionist Glen Velez, Joseph Gramley, Yousif Sheronick and vocalist Alessandra Belloni.

As a producer his music appears on several labels including: Shanachie records, Meadowlark, Rounder Records, Lyrichord Disks, Ellipsis Arts, and Bribie records.

 

Concert artist-  His virtuosity on a wide variety of fretted string instruments has enabled him to recorded for some of Hollywood’s most prominent film composers, including Howard Shore, for the Columbia Pictures film Gloria, (with Sharon Stone), as well as numerous jingles for TV and radio.LaBarbera has performed in concert halls around the world. Since 1974 he has performed in concert, with both classical music (as solo guitarist and with chamber ensembles) and traditional Southern Italian music with the group Pupi e Fresedde throughout Italy, France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Slovakia, and Scotland. John’s solo debut at the Montreal Jazz Festival occurred on July 1, 2003 with guest percussionist Roger Squitero. His quartet, Jazzmenco, performed at the opening and closing ceremonies at the USTA Open in Flushing Meadows. He tours Brazil regularly with his String Ecstasy Trio and is produced there by the Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, and SESC. He has also performed at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Guggenheim Museum, Metropolitan Museum, Smithsonian Institute, UCLA, the Field Museum in Chicago and the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Arts, the San Francisco World Music Festival, World Music Institute, Central Park Summer Stage and at the Jones Beach Theater where he opened for Sting, together with Palestinian oud and violin master Simon Shaheen and his group Quantara.

 

Film and TV appearances:

When in Rome (Touchstone films), The Bounty Hunter (Sony-Columbia), The Moon in the Gutter (with Gerard Depardiu and Natasha Kinski ) Gaumont-Cinecitta` productions, Neapolitan Heart (Cuore Napolitano) Rome, Italy, Warner TV’s The Gossip Girls, Law and Order.

 

Lecture Series- Boston University, Columbia University, New York University, UMass Dartmouth, UCLA.

 

Bio- For almost four decades internationally renown, guitar virtuoso, multi-instrumentalist, and composer John La Barbera has enchanted audiences throughout the United States, Europe and South America.  Born In New York City, he discovered at  the early age of ten, the alluring beauty of the guitar and the richness and power of its rhythm. Immediately after graduating with a Bachelor of Music degree in classical guitar and composition from the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Connecticut, he was awarded a scholarship to continue his graduate studies

in Siena and Florence, Italy.

 

It was in Florence in the early 1970's where John launched his professional career. He was selected as a full time guitarist and arranger for the folk music and theater company, Pupi e Fresedde, who honored his virtuosity and brought him acclaim in Italy and the rest of Europe. During those years, the group left an indelible mark with a tremendous contribution to Italian folk music, and was part of the first wave of the Italian folk music revival from that era. He started to transcribe a huge repertoire of folk music during this time. By 1977, the group inspired the German born director, Peter Schumann, puppet master and founder of The Bread and Puppet Theater to write “La Ballata di Masaniello” (The Ballad of the 14 days of Masaniello) and premiered the group on an American and European tour. The group presented to American audiences for the first time, in 1977, the music of the “Pizzica Tarantata” and other traditional folk music from the Salento region and Naples.

Upon his return to the U.S., he brought back his experience and own transcriptions of this music to form I Giullari di Piazza, together with vocalist-frame drummer Alessandra Belloni, in New York City in 1979.  He became the musical director and composer-arranger for the group and were artists -in -residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in NYC since the early 1990's.

In 1995  he was commisssioned by the Cathedral of Saint John The Divine and I Giullari Di Piazza with funding from The New York State Council for The Arts to compose a full length opera, "Stabat Mater-Donna Di Paradiso", a work based on the text by the 13th century Franciscan mystic and poet, Jacopone di Todi and adapted for stage by Alessandra Belloni.  The production was well received with much critical acclaim from The New York Times and the former  Dean of the Cathedral ,Rt. Reverend  James Parks Morton.

 

Education

He holds a M.Mus. in Jazz Studies and arranging from William Paterson University and a B.Mus. in classical guitar from The Hartt School of Music, University Of Hartford.

Guitar Studies:  He studied with guitarist Richard Provost at Hartt  and attended Master Classes with: Jose Rey Della Torre (Cuba) and Oscar Ghiglia (Italy). He was also a student of guitarists: Dominick Minassi, Juan Della Mata (Madrid Conservatory), Patrick O’Brian, Albert Valdes-Blain; Alan De Mause, Gene Bertoncini, and Carlos Barbosa-Lima (Brazil). He is cross-trained in many styles including: Classical, Jazz, Traditional Folk, Rock, Flamenco, Brazilian, Renaissance, medieval, and Italian music.

 

He is currently an adjunct music professor at the Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey and  artist in residence at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York. There he works with the educational program on Italian renaissance music and composer for their “What’s in a House” series for young students. He has taught at The Julius Hartt School of Music (University of Hartford); The Guitar Study Center of the New School in N.Y.; Sessione Sienese in Siena, Italy; SASI in Bratislava, Slovakia; and SESC in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

 

He conducts workshops and lectures on Acoustic guitar styles, ethnomusicology, world music, and writes for Acoustic Guitar magazine.

 

 

 

 

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