Robert Barto
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Robert Barto is an American musician-lutenist. Longtime resident of Germany, he is active worldwide. He performed solo baroque lute recitals at the Festival of Flanders, Purcell Room in London, Utrecht Festival and "Music Before 1800" in New York. In 2000, He gave solo performances at the Lufthansa Baroque Festival in London, Bavarian Radio's Bach Night in Munich and a special tribute to Sylvius Leopold Weiss in Dresden.
Robert Barto graduated from the University of California, San Diego, having specialised in historical lute performance. A Fulbright scholarship brought him to Europe, where he continued his studies with Michael Schaeffer in Cologne and Eugen Müller-Dombois in Basle.
In 1984, he was awarded first prize at the International Lute Competition in Toronto, as well as top prize in a competition of all the instrumental soloists at the Musica Antiqua Competition in Bruges, Belgium.
Robert Barto's eight volumes of baroque lute sonatas by Sylvius Leopold Weiss and 2 CDs of the complete solo works of Bernhard Joachim Hagen have met with great enthusiasm from critics and the public alike. He is considered the foremost interpreter of works by Weiss and Hagen.
