Hi! My name is Barry Russo, and I'm a pianist and vocalist whose areas of focus incorporate musical composition, recording, and performance, and span both the worlds of mainstream music and church music ministry. My wife, Christina, and I, both Rhode Island natives, currently reside in Central Upstate New York, where she's an emergency room nurse and jewelry designer, and I'm the music director at St. Peter's Catholic Church in Rome (remember, that's New York, not the other St. Peter's in Rome).

As a young student, I was immersed in the study of many composers, and found a particular interest and enjoyment in the music of Baroque and Classical era masters such as Bach, Clementi, Mozart, Handel and Vivaldi, to name but a very few. Some of my countless favorites in the popular realm include artists and bands that span the course of decades and styles. Among them are Howard Jones, Phil Collins, Survivor, Journey (and pretty much anything else 80s), Rob Thomas, Daughtry, The Script, Lincoln Brewster, Mercy Me, and Keith Urban (again, to name just a very few). All of these, and many more, have influenced me.

From very early on in my journey, I found myself walking several simultaneous paths. In the realm of secular music, I spent over a decade playing keyboards with local and regional rock bands, followed by more years up until the present of performing solo piano and high energy one-man-band shows, all the while often finding myself merely hours later leading hymns in the church setting. Since my high school years, I've led the music for countless Masses, funerals, and weddings, along with adult and youth choirs, handbell choirs, cantors, and contemporary ensembles at Catholic parishes in Rhode Island, Ohio, Kentucky, and now New York. Somewhere in there, I've also mentored many piano students of all ages, while providing piano and keyboard tracks for other songwriters and artists.

My love of writing music goes back to my childhood, and even then, involved both secular and church music. Three previous projects, These Are the Days, Where I Want to Be, and Back to Life, are a combination of secular and Christian crossover selections. Most recently, after studying to take on more of the technical aspects of the recording and production process myself, I've been releasing singles for an ongoing project called The Realign Collection.

Music has always had a profound impact on me. I'm certain I'm not alone in that. Every generation has those certain songs that serve as a soundtrack to their experiences growing up. Music was (and is) there to celebrate with us, comfort us, and dream with us. Every piece of music, from a symphony, to an enormously produced high energy rock or dance track, to the familiar strains of a beloved hymn, is a powerful creation that has a way of touching each of us in a unique way.

If I can do for others what countless artists, bands, and composers have done and continue to do for me, then I feel my purpose in life will have been happily fulfilled. Whatever the occasion or venue, be it a concert of original music, serving as an entertainer for a celebration, or providing sacred music for a funeral, wedding, or church service, I seek to impact and lift up all those who are present, and maybe even leave them with their soul smiling and sometimes with their feet tapping as well.