John T LaBarbera

Composer/Guitarist

John T. La Barbera, 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 Old Guitarist starring Dominic Chianese; 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), Regeneration (1915)

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 artists 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.
www.johntlabarbera.com