Award-winning guitarist Francesco Barone has performed throughout the United States as soloist and chamber musician. He has been featured by guitar festivals and societies, including The Hartt School Guitar Festival, the Connecticut Guitar Society, and the New England Guitar Society. Barone performed as featured soloist on a La Bella Strings sponsored concert in 2011, and his performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio. He is also a prizewinner of the Philadelphia Classical Guitar Society Guitar Competition.
In addition to traditional venues, Barone interacts with local communities and regularly performs outreach concerts at town libraries throughout New England. He also connects with younger audiences by giving house concerts nationally through the classical music startup Groupmuse.
Barone is an avid performer of the music of Nikita Koshkin, and he has contributed to the scholarship on this composer’s output. Barone’s doctoral essay, “A Structural Analysis of the Second Movement of Nikita Koshkin’s Sonata for Flute and Guitar,” was the first to analyze Koshkin’s chamber works. In 2015, he presented “Nikita Koshkin: Three Compositional Styles for Flute and Guitar That are Unique yet All Intrinsically Russian,” a lecture-recital that explored the varied styles of Koshkin’s chamber music.
Barone received a Doctorate of Musical Arts and a Master of Music from The Hartt School, University of Hartford, where he studied with Richard Provost. At Hartt, Barone was awarded the Graduate Teaching Fellowship in Guitar and performed with the prestigious 20/20 Honors Chamber Ensemble. He also holds a Bachelor of Music from Temple University, where he studied with guitarist/composer Allen Krantz. Barone has performed in numerous masterclasses with some of the world’s leading guitarists, including Manuel Barrueco, Jason Vieaux, Oscar Ghiglia, Scott Tennant, Antigoni Goni, Andrew York, and Elena Papandreou.
Barone is a leading classical guitar instructor in the Greater Hartford area and maintains a private studio in Newington, CT. He was recently voted the best guitar instructor in Newington, CT by lessons.com. He specializes in teaching classical and suzuki guitar and works with students of all ages and levels. He studied Classical Guitar pedagogy at the Hartt School and is certified to teach Suzuki guitar. He has over ten years of teaching experience at institutions including The Hartt School of Music, Columbia University, Capital Community College, Hartt School Community Division, Music Conservatory of Westchester, Middlesex Music Academy, Capital Preparatory Magnet School, Hebrew High School of New England, Settlement Music School and The Classical Guitar Store in Philadelphia, PA. The background of teaching at colleges, universities, public & private schools, precollege conservatories, community music schools and music stores has given Francesco the experience to teach students of various backgrounds and aspirations online and in-person.