Carlos Barrientos began his formal music studies at the National Music Conservatory in Guatemala City, Guatemala C.A. He holds two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of New Orleans, LA, and a Master of Music in Composition from Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL. His training with Maestro Elias Barreiro, Director of Guitar Studies at Tulane University, was supplemented with Master Classes with Manuel Barrueco, Leo Brouwer, Juan Mercadal, Michael Newman, Tommy Tedesco and Carlos Barbosa-Lima. He studied composition under the tutelage of Dr. Jerry Sieg, University of New Orleans, and Dr. Roy Johnson, Florida State University. As part of his Graduate Assistantship at FSU, Carlos Barrientos assisted and taught alongside Founder, Director and Artist-in-Residence Charles Atkins in the creation of the FSU Blues Lab, a workshop that provides the opportunity for both vocalists and instrumental participants to learn basic techniques of performing blues and related music derived from Blues. He consulted with Michael D. Martin, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Music, Albany State University, Albany, GA in the creation of a recordings library that reflects Western Art Music and American Jazz for the students at Albany State University. The New York Premiere of the First Movement of his Second Guitar Sonata was dedicated to and performed by Classical Guitarist Maestro Carlos Barbosa-Lima in 2003 at Carnegie Hall. At the request of U.S. Senator Bob Graham one of his compositions, “Si Tu Te Vas (If You Go Away),” was included on a recording to promote The Everglades Trail. In 2004, at the American Church in Paris, France the World Premiere of his “Romance for Flute and Guitar” was performed by the award-winning Serenade Duo, flutist Michelle LaPorte and guitarist Gerry Saulter. In 2009, they recorded it for inclusion in Beth Joiner's Independent Film: Voices. He has performed with such legendary musicians as Herbie Mann, Donald Byrd and Debbie Reynolds, led an on stage Renaissance Trio in a University of New Orleans production of Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night,” and played incidental music for their production of Bertold Brecht's “The Good Woman of Setzuan.” He has performed Carulli's Guitar Concerto in A, Leonard Bernstein's “West Side Story” and Marvin Hamlish's “A Chorus Line” with the Northwest Florida Symphony Orchestra and Okaloosa-Walton Community College, Niceville, FL., and with the Southern Art Music Ensemble, a Jazz/Latin Fusion Sextet, including an Honors Convocation in Atlanta for Mr. Ted Turner. He has been a guest performer with the Albany State University Jazz Ensemble at The Fletcher Henderson Jr., Macon and Atlanta Jazz Festivals, and played the banjo in the Albany State University/Albany Symphony's co-production of George Gershwin's Opera “Porgy and Bess.” He is a member of the Guitar Foundation of America and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP). Carlos Barrientos is fluent in English, French and Spanish.
Web: http://www.facebook.com/carlos.barrientos/info (2012)