FRED BARTON is a New-York-based songwriter, TV composer, lyricist, librettist, director, actor, singer, orchestrator, conductor, and pianist.

FORBIDDEN BROADWAY
Fred made his New York debut in 1982 as co-creator-arranger-performer-pianist of the internationally acclaimed revue Forbidden Broadway, appearing in the New York, L.A. and Boston productions for 2,000 performances, and on the cast album for DRG Records. In 1985, the show won its first Drama Desk Award, and plays on into the 21st century. The show received a special Tony Award in June, 2007, and recently celebrated its 25th Anniversary. Forbidden Broadway has spawned a series of CDs and many regional productions, and played numerous national and international tours.

CABARET and OFF-BROADWAY
Forbidden Broadway triggered a huge revival of cabaret entertainment nationwide, and in 1983 Fred Barton created Miss Gulch Returns!, a one-man musical theatre piece that played to critical and popular acclaim in New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, D.C., and Chicago, with acclaimed independent productions in Nashville, Indianapolis, Cleveland, Richmond, Asheville N.C., and Boise. The record album generated an international cult following, and outlived LPs, cassettes, and CD's, and is now a popular digital download. Miss Gulch's song "Pour Me A Man" is being sung regularly in cabarets on three continents. Fred won the Back Stage Bistro award for his original performance in Miss Gulch Returns!, and his new song for the 20th Anniversary production, "I Can Be An Icon Too," garnered a Manhattan Association of Cabarets nomination for Best Special Material.

Fred arranged and music-directed Whoop-Dee-Doo, a sleeper hit at New York's Actors' Playhouse. Directed by Phillip George, the show won two Drama Desk awards, was recorded by RCA Records, and Fred contributed a song for the London production.

Fred wrote book, music and lyrics for The Two Svengalis, co-written by and co-starring the Drama-Desk-Award winner Toni DiBuono. The CD was recently released by Original Cast Records (available from onlne outlets and digital downloading services.)

Fred orchestrated and music-directed Scott Siegel's 2007 sold-out, critically acclaimed concerts A Night At The Operetta and Broadway Originals, featuring such performers as Mark Jacoby, Paul Schoeffler, Marc Kudisch, Christiane Noll, Gavin Lee, Willy Falk, Anita Gillette, George S. Irving, Alan Campbell, Brad Oscar, and Barbara Walsh.

Fred also played for the original New York productions of Joel Paley's Ruthless!, Rita McKenzie's Call Me Ethel, Gerard Alessandrini's Forbidden Hollywood, and Bill Solly's The Great American Backstage Musical. He has arranged and accompanied cabaret performances for numerous talents including Karen Murphy, Neva Small, Tommy Femia, and Tovah Feldshuh.

TELEVISION
Fred currently orchestrates Wonder Pets! for Little Airplane Productions, with music by Larry Hochman and numerous other composers including Matt Sklar and Jerry Bock. Fred recently arranged and musically supervised HBO's Cathouse: The Musical, also appearing as himself; the show airs throughout January, 2008. Fred was Associate Composer for four seasons of The Magic Schoolbus, starring Emmy-Award-wining Lily Tomlin. The Magic Schoolbus was a smash on PBS, syndicated by the Fox Network, and is currently in international syndication. Fred also contributed scoring for Michael Moore's The Awful Truth, and Nickelodeon's Eureeka's Castle. Fred previously appeared as a pianist and performer on the Merv Griffin Show, the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, the Today Show, Entertainment Tonight, the former WNEW's Make-Believe Ballroom, as well as on the cover of USA Today, in the pages of People, Time, Newsweek, and Vogue magazines, with full-page profiles in the Advocate, Playguy, and the NY Native.

SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAS and ORCHESTRATIONS
Fred has executed numerous major orchestrations for the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, for which he has served as Music Associate for many of its Symphonic Pops Consortium's original concert programming. Fred's orchestrations are played by orchestras across the country and Canada; he just finished orchestrations for Sandi Patty and the 2007 Indianapolis Symphony Yuletide Extravaganza. He is currently preparing orchestrations for the Indianapolis Pops' symphonic concert of Billy Joel songs starring Michael Cavanaugh. Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops premiered two of Fred's compositions in 2005 to a standing ovation in Boston's Symphony Hall.

Fred has also provided orchestrations for Faith Prince, Christine Pedi, Elena Bennett (A Wrinkle In Swingtime, a popular big-band CD), Neva Small, Wright & Forrest, and for Nathan Lane's all-star birthday party at the Rainbow Room.

BROADWAY & MUSICAL THEATRE
Fred Barton served as Associate Conductor for Anthony Quinn's farewell national tour of Kander & Ebb's Zorba, and for Harold Prince's revival of Kander & Ebb's Cabaret on Broadway and on its two national tours. Fred played in the celebrated swinging pit of Cy Coleman's Broadway smash City of Angels, for which he then served as Associate Conductor of the West Coast and national companies. In 1993-4 Fred associate-conducted Camelot starring Robert Goulet on national tour. As a keyboardist, Fred played in the Broadway pits of Guys & Dolls (Nathan Lane and Faith Prince), The Will Rogers Follies (original) and the 1994-8 Grease.

Fred served as Musical Director for Austin Musical Theatre during its distinguished eight-year run, conducting a first-rate 18-piece orchestra, winning critical acclaim (and an occasional award) for his arranging and conducting of Peter Pan with Jonathan Freeman, West Side Story with Donna Marie Asbury, Annie with Ruth Williamson, Gypsy with Pamela Myers, Fiddler On The Roof with Lorraine Serabian, The Music Man starring Larry Gatlin, A Chorus Line with Jane Lanier, a highly acclaimed Oklahoma! with Kevin Earley, a mammoth Oliver! with Stephanie J. Block, Man Of La Mancha with Kevin Gray, Pamela Isaacs, and Ken Page, The Sound Of Music with Mark Jacoby and Lauren Hathaway, a spectacular Sweet Charity with the magnificent Leslie Stevens, and My Fair Lady with Luann Aronson. Austin Musical Theatre closed in October, 2003 with an acclaimed million-dollar production of The Wizard Of Oz with Dirk Lombard, John Bolton, Paul Ainsley, and Michael McCarty.

Regionally, Fred conducted The Will Rogers Follies with Marla Maples Trump at Atlanta's Fox Theatre, City of Angels and Evita at the North Shore Music Theatre, and the multi-awarded 30th Anniversary production of Dames At Sea in San Francisco. At the Gateway Playhouse, Fred arranged and conducted Jule Styne's Sugar, Thoroughly Modern Millie, and Sweet Charity. At the Bridgeport Downtown Cabaret Theatre, Fred arranged and conducted Sweet Charity (Connecticut Critics' Award, Best Musical Production); and Fred began his career arranging and conducting fifteen productions at Tommy Brent's Theatre-By-The-Sea, including the first-ever stock productions of Chicago, On The Twentieth Century, and Over Here!

STARS
Fred has worked with dozens of personalities including Madeline Kahn, Lucie Arnaz, Julie Wilson, Karen Akers, Nora Mae Lyng, Anita Gillette, George S. Irving, Judy Kaye, Leila Martin, Shirley Verrett, Liliane Montevecchi, Theodore Bikel, Josie de Guzman, Donna MacKechnie, Harry Groener, Joel Grey, Andrea McArdle, Regina Resnik, Marcia Lewis, James Naughton, Randy Graff, Steven Bogardus, Marc Kudisch, David Miller, Pamela Myers, David Soul, Barry Williams, Roberta Peters, Jan Peerce, Marni Nixon, Joe Piscopo, Dee Hoty, Jason Alexander, Sharon Lawrence, Debbie Boone, Chubby Checker, Marilyn Cooper, Michael McGrath, Chloe Webb, Betty Buckley, Gretchen Wyler, Susan Watson, Christiane Noll, Walter Willison, Peggy Hewett, Carole Shelley, Debra Monk, Jane Krakowski, Priscilla Lopez, Marilyn Sokol, Neva Small, Stephanie J. Block, Martin Vidnovic, and Tovah Feldshuh.

ACTOR/SINGER
In 2008, Fred will appear as a top banana in Phillip George's new off-Broadway revue Burly-Q (for which Fred is providing songs.) In addition to his performances in Forbidden Broadway, Miss Gulch Returns!, and The Two Svengalis, Fred has appeared in Cy Coleman's Lawyers, Lovers, and Lunatics (directed by Patricia Birch), Annie (playing Bert Healey in Austin Musical Theatre's production with Ruth Williamson), The Wizard Of Oz (as the Witch), and many cabaret and special-event appearances.

DISCOGRAPHY
The Two Svengalis, with Fred's music and lyrics and starring Drama-Desk-winner Toni DiBuono, was released in 2006 by Original Cast Records. Fred's discography includes Miss Gulch Returns!, Whoop-Dee-Doo!, and the Forbidden Broadway collection. He arranged and produced Karen Murphy's CD Torch Goddess, Stuart Ambrose's pop CD Making It Through, and arranged and co-produced Neva Small's career-retrospective CD, My Place In The World. Also in production is a CD compilation, Pour Me A Man -- The Songs Of Fred Barton, which will feature guest performances by a number of acclaimed cabaret and Broadway singers. Fred's orchestrations can also be heard on A Bag Of Popcorn And A Dream (a collection of rare songs by the legendary team of Wright & Forrest) and A Wrinkle In Swingtime, a big-band collection with singer Elena Bennett for whom he conducted the 27-piece Fred Barton Orchestra.

EDUCATION
Fred Barton has a B.A. in Music from Harvard, and a Master's degree in Film and Television Music from the University of Southern California, where he won the annual Harry Warren Award in that field. He has taught musical theatre performance at New York University, the American Musical & Dramatic Academy, and Harvard University.