century New York City.
About this Event
A lecture performance by John T. La Barbera, composer and author of “Traditional Southern Italian Mandolin and Fiddle Tunes” and “Italian Folk Music For Mandolin”.
The first international popular music to emerge in the modern era is without a doubt, the Canzone Napoletana. Success of Neapolitan songs reached far beyond the borders of Italy, credited mostly to the large waves of Italian emigrants who consumed the music in the form of sheet music, piano rolls, and 78 rpm recordings. With the increasing flow of new immigrants before World War I, and the demand growing for a way of preserving the musical heritage they left behind, merchants found lucrative business opportunities within the ethnic communities. Centered around Mulberry street in lower Manhattan, composers, performers, publishers, mandolin and guitar luthiers and record companies were responible for keeping a steady flow of Italian music available for distribution across the U.S. and back to Italy. This illustrated lecture performance, offers a unique opportunity addressing the vast repertoire of music published in New York with some paralles to “Tin Pan Alley”. With power point illustrations, artifacts and original sheet music from the period, several musical examples will be performed on the guitar and mandolin .
John T. La Barbera-guitarist is a NYC based Academy Award-nominated film score composer for film and theater, producer, guitar and stringed instrument virtuoso, concert artist, educator and author. Winner of awards and commissions from The Jerome Foundation, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Martin Gruss Foundation, Meet the Composer, UMass-Dartmouth, and ASCAP.
Film scores: “Children of Fate “(Academy Award Nomination 1992), “Marcella”; “Musical Journeys of the Black Madonna”; “The Bounty Hunter”; “Sacco and Vanzetti”; “Sister Italy”; “Pane Amaro”; “What's up Scarlet”, “Finding the Mother Lode: Italian Immigrants in California”, and “Tarantella”; “The Old Guitarist”, starring Dominic Chianese. Silent film scores: “Assunta Spina”, ‘A Santanotte”, “The Immigrant”, “The Adventurer”.
He was invited to screen his film score to Assunta Spina in Italy at the 37th annual Pordenone Silent Film Festival, and at the Cineteca del Gemona (2018). Theater: composer and musical director for off-Broadway production of Souls of Naples, starring John Turturro; Kaos, (New York Theater Workshop) directed by Marta Clarke. Off Broadway Productions at La Mama, ETC, and composer of Italian Folk Operas and Sacred works including “Stabat Mater: Donna di Paradiso”. Musical director and co-founder of “I Giullari di Piazza”, Italian traditional Music, Theater and Dance, since 1980.
He has appeared in films (the Bounty Hunter; When in Rome) and on recording and performance projects with Judy Collins, John Densmore of THE DOORS, musical director for actor Dominic Chianese; Hollywood film soundtracks, Walt Disney Productions, TV and Radio jingles.
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.
He is a professor of music at Bergen Community College since 2004 and conducts workshop in Italy. www.johntlabarbera.com/ recordings on YouTube, iTunes, Spotify, Soundcloud, CD Baby
Ticket price includes admission to the Museum's current exhibitions, "Nuvolari – Comeback New York: An immersive exhibition celebrating the life of Tazio Nuvolari on the 90th Anniversary of his victory in the Vanderbilt Cup on Columbus Day, October 12, 1936”, "Sicilian Theater in Little Italy: The Return of the Manteo Puppets" and "Goodnight, Maria: A Tribute to all the women who worked tirelessly in the garment industry to live the American dream".
Event venue & nearby stays
Italian American Museum, 151 Mulberry Street, New York, United States
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