Lisa Brigantino grew up in the town of Katonah, just North of New York City and began her musical training at an early age, starting piano lessons at 5, violin at 7 and upright bass at 14. She is a trained vocalist and is self-taught on guitar, electric bass, mandolin, percussion, ukulele, banjo, accordion, harmonica and cello to name a few. Lisa comes from a musical family and her relatives include the late Felix Pappalardi, legendary producer of Cream and producer and bassist for Mountain and Michael Barbiero, producer, engineer and remixer extraordinaire who has worked with acts ranging from The Alarm, Expose, Anthrax and Blues Traveler to Joe Cocker, Whitney Houston, and Gov't Mule.
Lisa began composing as a child and continued through high school and college, attending The School of Music at State University of New York at Fredonia. She studied composition and theory with Dr. Donald Bohlen and voice with Christine Walters. She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music theory and stayed on at Fredonia as a graduate assistant and received a Master of Music degree in composition and music theory.
Lisa lives in Brooklyn, NY and performs her original, eclectic mix of folk/blues/rock/pop/country as a soloist and with husband and guitarist Tomi Millioto. Lisa also performs with "In The Rough" a vocal trio which also features her sister, Lori Brigantino and Broadway veteran Susan Haefner. Lisa has built up an enthusiastic following performing around the country and at well-known venues in the New York City/Tri-State area.
Lisa’s CD release "A Brooklyn Night" continues to receive great reviews and radio airplay in the United States as well as internationally and her second album is currently being recorded with an anticipated release of Spring 2009.
Lisa performs with her sister Lori at cabaret spaces around NYC and beyond in "The Vickie and Nickie Show" - a wacky musical comedy act about the fun, multi-instrumental, singing suburban-housewife sister duo, Vickie and Nickie, straight from the hills of Northern Minnesota. Through original songs and tunes ranging from pop to rock to rap, Vickie and Nickie share their rise to “fame”, family stories and their own special take on the world today while accompanying themselves on acoustic and electric guitars, accordion, saxophone, violin, Casio keyboard and more. The self-contained Vickie and Nickie Show is infused with improvisation and audience participation. Visit www.vickieandnickie.com.
Coming from an eclectic base has helped Lisa compose music for a variety of projects including "Reflections", an experimental theatre production, "Scenes and Revelations", a play produced at The Chautauqua Institute, "Seeing Red", a short film which Lisa also appeared in, various choral and instrumental works, a cabaret show entitled "The Edge of Guilt, A Quantum Trek" and numerous arrangements and transcriptions. Lisa has sound designed and composed music for Twinfish Productions, Inc., The New Edge Theatre Company and The Central Stage Players. In addition, Lisa has written music for TV producer Stephen Kaufman of Snappercreek Productions as well as production music for Technical Directions, LLC. Her song "Wallflower" was used in the short film "The Journal". Lisa’s company Hidden Pond Productions supplies music/talent supervision, intellectual property licensing and original custom music production services. Lisa and Tom Millioto recently wrote and recorded the music for a national TV and radio commercial for Plato’s Closet, an apparel store chain. Lisa scored music for the short film “Taken”, released in 2007 written and directed by Jennifer Williams. Lisa is currently composing music for Williams’ next film, Game Night. Visit www.hiddenpondproductions.com.
Lisa is the recipient of a Citation of Merit Award from past Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden for her work on "A Brooklyn Night”. She is a past finalist in the Fast Folk Magazine NYC Singer/Songwriter Contest and has also received a "Cool Band Award" from GoGirlsMusic.com for her website, www.lisabrig.com. Lisa is the recipient of honorable mentions in the past five consecutive Annual Billboard World Song Contest for her songs "WallFlower", "The Light Of Your Face", “Departure”, “Don’t Say It At All” and “I Gotta Find Me Something”. Lisa has performed in numerous singer/songwriter showcases including showcases for The Songwriters Guild of America, BMI, Women In Music, Inc., The Uptown Songwriters Hang, The Marmalade Jam, The Annual New York City Peekaboo Festival of New Music and Theatre and more.
Lisa was a founding member of Lez Zeppelin, the world's first all girl, all Led Zeppelin tribute band, playing bass, keyboards, mandolin and doing backup vocals. Lez Zeppelin toured internationally and performed over 300 shows in the past three years across 10 countries garnering rave reviews, including press appearances in Rolling Stone ( US, Germany and Japan ), Time Out New York & Chicago, Entertainment Weekly, The London Times, BBC.UK, CNN.com, The Sydney Morning Herald, AOL.com, Relix Magazine, The Boston Globe, Seven News Australia, The New Yorker, Vh1, MTV News, CNN News, CBS Sunday Morning, Music Fair TV in Japan and many more. Lez Zeppelin's debut album, produced and recorded by the legendary Eddie Kramer is available in the US and Europe and when released in Japan last summer, charted in the Top 100.
Lisa is a member of BMI, The Songwriters Guild of America, a voting member of NARAS and serves on the Advisory Board of Women In Music, Inc., She is also a past co-editor and contributing writer for Women In Music, Inc.’s quarterly magazine, WIM.
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