Assistant Professor
Guitar
Contact Information
Cogswell 306
jbagnato@iup.edu
724-357-2390
Courses
Applied Guitar
Guitar Ensemble
Degrees
PhD, University of Pittsburgh
MM, University of New Orleans
BM, Manhattan School of Music
Biography
John Bagnato studied improvisation with Don Cherry at the Naropa Institute and with Geri Allen during his doctoral studies at the University of Pittsburgh, where he researched the significance of blindness among popular recorded blues and gospel musicians.
His research was supported by a Mellon Fellowship and presented at the national conferences of the American Musicological Society, the Society for Ethnomusicology, and the International Conference of the Blues, where he was awarded the Luther Brown
Prize.
As a guitarist living in New Orleans for a decade prior to hurricane Katrina, he performed and toured with Big Chief Donald Harrison, Jr. in Africa, South America, the Caribbean, and Europe and recorded with Mario Adnet, Bill Summers, and Trombone Shorty.
He continues to draw from that experience as a performer and researcher of the music of Brazil and Latin America, especially interested in the interrelation of these regions’ musical and cultural practices with those of New Orleans. He presented his
research on Gottschalk and conducted jazz improvisation workshops in Bahia, Brazil, at the University of Feira de Santana. His interests include jazz, blues, and Latin American concert music for the guitar as well as popular musical styles he plays
on the Brazilian cavaquinho and Cuban tres.
Video Links
Solo with the Vail Jumpers
Solo with Donald Harrison at the New Orleans Jazz Fest
A Guitar Summit with Eric Susoeff and Ken Karsh
Other Links
Academia’s profile of John Bagnato