John T. LaBarbera

John T. La Barbera, composer-arranger. musician and actor has won several awards and commissions from: The Jerome Foundation, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Martin Gruss Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, numerous composer awards from ASCAP and finalist in the John Lennon Songwriting Competition. Because of his expertise in Italian traditional music, LaBarbera has been a valuable resource for both film and theater directors. His film scores often include mandolin as the principal instrument, as in the Academy Award Nominated feature documentary: Children of Fate, (1992); Finding The Mother Lode: Italian Immigrants in California (2015); Sister Italy (2012); Sacco and Vanzetti (2007); Pane Amaro (2007); What's up Scarlet (2005) Neapolitan Heart -Cuore Napolitano (2000); La Festa (1996) and Tarantella (1994). In Theater, his expertise as composer, arranger and musical director was valuable in the off-Broadway productions of Souls of Naples, 2003, (Theater for a New Audience) starring John Turturro and the stage adaptation of Sicilian playwright Luigi Pirandello's short stories in Kaos, 2006 (New York Theater Workshop) directed by Marta Clarke. He has composed and produced seven albums, and theatrical productions. His percussion music has been performed and recorded by the Ethos Percussion group and Grammy Award winning percussionist Joseph Gramley. Published works include: Traditional Southern Italian Mandolin and Fiddle Tunes, and Italian Folk Music for Mandolin, Mel Bay Publications, 2009 and 2012; The Marimbaba Suite- for percussion quartet and Danza del Fuego for solo marimba, both published with Bachovich Music Publications, 2009; and "That's Not Italian Music" from Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2009. His compositions and arrangements have been performed for the Bloomfield Mandolin Orchestra in Bloomfield, New Jersey. As a concert artist, he performs to audiences throughout the United States, Europe and South America including: The Montreal Jazz Festival, Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall-Lincoln Center, The Felt Forum, the San Francisco World Music Festival, Central Park Summer Stage, the Jones Beach Theater, and the Banco do Brasil's, Brasil Festeiro and SESC, in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Composer of original Folk Operas: Stabat Mater: Donna di Paradiso 1995; The Voyage of the Black Madonna 1990; The Dance Of The Ancient Spider 1996; La Lupa-The She-Wolf 1987; The Adventures Of Don Giovanni And His Servant Pulchinella 1987. He holds a M.Mus. from The William Paterson University in Jazz Studies and Arranging and a B.Mus. from The Hartt School of Music in Classical Guitar. Since 2004 he is a faculty member at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey and 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 mandolin and acoustic guitar styles, ethnomusicology, world music, and has written for Acoustic Guitar magazine. His music has been recorded on Shanachie records, Meadowlark, Rounder Records, Lyrichord Disks, Ellipsis Arts, and Bribie records.