Welcome
Sam Lustig is a composer, performer, producer and teacher based in Los Angeles, and has been studying/playing music for roughly twenty years. He is fluent on Guitar, Piano, electric Bass, Drums, and Voice, and has written and produced music for orchestras, big bands, rock bands, theatre, short films and more.
After several years spent writing and performing in various ensembles on the East coast, he moved from New York to Los Angeles in 2000 to enter the music program at the California Institute of the Arts; there he earned a BFA in Composition, and had the opportunity to study world music, jazz, film scoring and interdisciplinary art, as well as apprentice under such esteemed faculty as James Tenney, David Roitstein, Art Jarvinen and Marc Lowenstein.
He performs and records regularly as MisterBarnabus, and has to date produced three albums and a single of varying styles, in addition to performing at many notable Los Angeles venues including Molly Malone's, The Cat Club, Key Club, Viper Room, and Rainbow Room among others. He is proud to have shared the stage with such diverse L.A. Artists as Delta Nove, Woven, FearMia, Shammy Dee, Swing Brazil, Fandango Sin Fronteras, Shakti Dance Company, Dafra African Ensemble, La Santa Cecelia, Klezmer Juice, Ten West, Magnolia Memoir, Judson Mckinney, Odaal and many more.
Since 2006 he has been the musical director and composer/performer for the 24th Street Theatre's Arts Education program and since 2009 has been composing/performing as part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic's Summersounds Youth show at the Hollywood Bowl museum.
He began teaching privately in 1997 and since then has remained committed to music education in various forms. He began Rockstar Academy in 2006 as a blanket for his educational pursuits, which include starting one of the first 'play-in-a-band' programs in the Santa Clarita valley. In 2009 the program teamed with Command Studios in Valencia, CA to give these student bands the opportunity to record demos of their songs in a pro studio. To date he has produced over thirty student recordings as part of the program, which continues to thrive, providing an important outlet for young area musicians.