Art Labriola has been playing piano for as long as he can remember. He likes to say that he pursued a music career simply because it was the path of least resistance.

Born in Manhattan he began formal classical study at the age of four- appearing on radio by the age of ten. After several years of intensive study he abandoned music to make time for a normal adolescence.

It wasn't until later, as an abroad student in London, that he rediscovered the passion of musical performance in the West End jazz scene. He soon set off to master the art of improvisation. After graduating from Amherst College, he moved to New York City to study with noted jazz players Walter Bishop Jr., Hal Galper, Lou Stein, and Andy Laverne. Nights were spent taking courses in composition at the Manhattan School of Music and the Mannes School of Music.

Soon Art was touring Europe and Asia as a pianist and keyboard player-- most notably with The Deep River Boys, an Afro American singing trio performing forgotten spirituals and obscure jazz pieces. He also toured extensively with The Elliot Murphy Band.

He eventually discovered the recording studio and began and continues his career in film scoring, commercial recording and record production. In that time Art has won a Grammy, an Emmy and a Clio award. He has worked with noted documentary film directors as Barbara Koppel, Joe Lovett, Rob Fruchtman, and Lisa Jackson. For many years Art worked and collaborated with Tom Pomposello with whom he also toured and co-created the group Oil Can.

Today he continues to perform, compose and produce music but is mostly content making records in his studio near his wife and two daughters in the scenic Hudson Valley in New York. He created the CD "Winter Day" playing piano while staring out the window at the winter landscape.

His latest passion is learning how to play the square neck dobro-- and to eventually attain the same level of musical communication that he achieves on the piano.

For Art, music has no end to its discovery and its pursuit is the perfect metaphor for the thing that makes life fulfilling.