Episode 3: John T. La Barbera - His magical musical journey from New York City to Tuscany

Compass with Antoinette LaVecchia

John T. La Barbera- guitarist, multi-instrumentalist, composer-arranger, educator and author, born in New York City. As a pioneer of the music that shaped the first Italian folk revival in Italy in the early 1970s. (he was an active member working with the Pugliese folk group Pupi e Fresedde), John learned the music by oral tradition while touring with the group's theatrical and musical productions throughout Europe and in 1978, recorded the album, La Terra Del Rimorso, presenting the pizzica-tarantella music of the Salento region in Southern Italy. He continued to do extensive research in Southern Italian music and traditions and in returning to NYC in 1979, kept traditional Southern Italian music alive by co-founding the Italian folk music and theater company, I Giullari di Piazza, together with Alessandra Belloni, vocalist, frame drummer and actress. The group became Artists-in Residence at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, NYC and at the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, in Katonah New York. He was awarded in 2005 for the extraordinary role of the transmission and translation of Italian oral traditions from The Italian Oral History Institute, and recognized as one of the first transcribers of Southern Italian folk music in America. In 2016 he received the John and Mary Esposito Fellowship Award in Italian American Culture and History from UMass at Dartmouth. 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 (2009) and Italian Folk Music For Mandolin (2012), with Mel Bay Publications. As a composer, La Barbera received numerous awards and commissions. Film scores include: Academy Award nominated documentary Children of Fate; Finding The Mother Lode: Italian Immigrants in California; Sacco and Vanzetti; Pane Amaro; Neapolitan Heart; La Festa; and Tarantella. Silent film scores: La Barbera premiered new scores to Chaplin’s The Immigrant at the Cineteca del Gemona di Friuli and Assunta Spina at the 37th Annual Pordenone Silent Film Festival in 2018 and most recently scored the Neapolitan film ‘A Santanotte and Chaplin’s The Adventurer. Theatrical scores: composer-musical director of 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. His percussion music has been performed and recorded by the Ethos Percussion group and Grammy Award winning percussionist Joseph Gramley. Published works include: The Marimbaba Suite- for percussion quartet and Danza del Fuego for solo marimba, both published with Bachovich Music Publications; and “That’s Not Italian Music” from Oral History, Oral Culture, and Italian Americans, Palgrave-MacMillan, 2009. Composer of original folk operas for I Giullari di Piazza: Stabat Mater: Donna di Paradiso; The Voyage of the Black Madonna; The Dance Of The Ancient Spider; La Lupa-The She-Wolf; The Adventures Of Don Giovanni And His Servant Pulcinella. 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. For more info visit John’s web sites at: www.johntlabarbera.com --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/antoinette-lavecchia/support