Join us as we welcome entertaining storyteller and master musician, John T. La Barbera, weaving stories and songs as he presets his autobiographical article “That’s Not Italian Music!” My Musical Journey from New York to Italy and Back Again. It was first presented at the 2005 Annual Conference of the American Italian Historical Association at UCLA, where he was awarded for his extraordinary role in the transmission and translation of Italian oral traditions in America.

John T. La Barbera is a composer, arranger, guitarist, mandolinist, educator and author whose expertise in Italian traditional music has made him a valuable resource for both film and theater directors. As a pioneer of the music that shaped the great Italian folk revival in Italy in the 1970s, in which 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.