John Bergamo

John Bergamo (1940-2013) was an American percussionist and composer who founded the percussion program at the California Institute of the Arts in 1970 and taught there until 2005. He studied Indian drumming traditions in depth, and his work moved between contemporary composition, world percussion and session playing on film soundtracks such as Altered States. Bergamo studied with Max Roach at the Lenox School of Jazz in 1959 and took a master's degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1962. In 1964 he joined the Creative Associates, the Buffalo group formed by Lukas Foss.