John Bergamo

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John Bergamo (b. May 28, 1940, Englewood, New Jersey) is an American percussionist and composer. Since 1970 he has been the coordinator of the percussion department at the California Institute of the Arts.

He studied Carnatic percussion with T. Ranganathan, and composition with Michael Colgrass. He plays both Western drum set and percussion as well as a wide variety of non-Western percussion instruments, including tabla. In 1979 he became perhaps the first Westerner to study the thavil in Chennai, India.

Over the course of his career, he has performed with Frank Zappa, Nexus, Dave Liebman, Ali Akbar Khan, Lou Harrison, Malcolm Goldstein, Mickey Hart, Emil Richards, Shadowfax, L. Shankar, Glen Velez, Repercussion Unit, Lukas Foss, Gunther Schuller, Charles Wuorinen (The Group for Contemporary Music at Columbia University), Shakti with John McLaughlin, Trichy Sankaran, and Steve Gadd, and participated in the "World Drums" performance at EXPO 86.

In addition, he has performed on the soundtracks of a number of Hollywood films, including Act of Violence, Altered States, Bad News Bears go to Japan, Chapter Two, Crossroads, The Exorcist II, The Heretic, Island of Dr. Moreau (1996), L.A. Story, National LAmpoon's Class Reunion, Perfect Weapon, Popeye, The Possessed, Project X, A Reflection of Fear, The Scarecrow Sniper, Tarzan the Ape Man, and Who's Harry Crumb.

His music is published by Smith Publications.

[edit] Discography

1977 - Zappa, Frank. Zappa in New York. Barking Pumpkin.
1986 - Bergamo, John. On the Edge. CD. Cologne, Germany: CMP Records.
1990 - Harrison, Lou. Music for Guitar and Percussion. [Netherlands]: Etcetera; N[ew] Y[ork]: Dist. by Qualiton Imports. (John Bergamo, conducts the Cal Arts Percussion Ensemble in the first work, Canticle no. 3.)

[edit] Filmography

1987 - World Drums. Directed by Niv Fichman. Produced by Rhombus Media.
1990 - Bergamo, John. The Art & Joy of Hand Drumming. Directed by Toby Keeler. Brattleboro, Vermont: Interworld Music Associates.