JT LaBarbera

What the audience will see is a very well prepared artist with a lifetime of experience in creating music played with his own instruments and songs and scores he prepared. I have played for every type of audience from the very sophisticated lovers of classical guitar to those who enjoy a jazz rhythm or a bossa composition of Jobim or Gilberto. Those who enjoy the American songbook will be delighted with songs from Porter, Gershwin, Arlen and all the other great composers. And Italians, and lovers of Italian music will hear some of the familiar tunes as well as authentic folk music going back to the renaissance.
I will meet with the client and lay out a repertoire to meet his exact needs. He or she will choose the songs as well as the instruments, which include guitars from all over the world and from many different periods such as the lute.
I will compose music to your lyrics, or provide words as well. If you have a show or movie to be scored, I will give your music that supports the characters and brings the story to life.
I will arrange music for everything from a combo to an orchestra.

John T. La Barbera, Academy Award-nominated film score composer, producer, guitar and stringed instrument virtuoso and concert artist, has won several awards and commissions from The Jerome Foundation, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Martin Gruss Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, Meet the Composer, UMass-Dartmouth, and ASCAP.

His film scores include: Children of Fate (Academy Award Nomination 1992); The Bounty Hunter; Sacco and Vanzetti ; Sister Italy; Pane Amaro; What's up Scarlet; Neapolitan Heart ; Finding The Mother Lode: Italian Immigrants in California; La Festa and Tarantella . His silent film scores include Assunta Spina, (1915, Naples), ‘A Santa Notte (1922, Naples), Chaplin’s The Immigrant (1917) and The Adventurer (1917), The Black Hand (1906), The Musketeers of Pig Alley (1912) and The Adventures of Lieutenant Petrosino, (1912).

In Theater, his expertise as composer, arranger and musical director was valuable in the off-Broadway productions of Souls of Naples, (Theater for a New Audience) starring John Turturro and the stage adaptation of Sicilian playwright Luigi Pirandello's short stories in Kaos, (New York Theater Workshop) directed by Marta Clarke. Folk Opera, Stabat Mater-Donna di Paradiso, was commissioned and performed at The Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

He has appeared on recording and performance projects with many great artist including folk singer Judy Collins, actor Dominic Chianese (Uncle Junior- Sopranos), Hollywood film soundtracks, Walt Disney Productions, TV and Radio jingles, Broadway actress and star of The Lion King, South African vocalist Tsiddi Le Loka and the famed Italian American - Neapolitan singer, Jimmy Roselli.

As a producer he has recently produced I’m a Typical New Yorker for actor Dominic Chianese and worked for several labels including: Shanachie records, Meadowlark, Rounder Records, Lyrichord Disks, Ellipsis Arts, and Bribie Records.

He appears in the film When in Rome (Touchstone Films) as the wedding scene mandolinist/band leader and in the Bounty Hunter (Sony-Columbia) as the cocktail guitarist performing his own composition Cavatina Blue.

He is the author of the first and foremost book published in the U.S. on the Italian mandolin called Traditional Southern Italian Mandolin and Fiddle Tunes and Italian Folk Music For Mandolin, with Mel Bay Publications.

Since 1973 he has performed in concert halls around the world with classical music, jazz and traditional world music (as composer, solo guitarist and chamber music), throughout Europe, South America, Canada and the US and is the co-founder of I Giullari di Piazza, Inc., traditional southern Italian folk music and theater company in New York City since 1979 and artist in residence at The Cathedral of St. John The Divine.
He is an adjunct faculty professor of music at Bergen Community College and conducts workshop in Italy. His music can be found on: Bandcamp, DistroKid, YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud , CD Baby and his own website.
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Armless chair. PA system, music stand, monitor for stage performances, dressing room as required.