Biography
ABOUT
Giancarlo Vulcano is a composer and guitarist in Brooklyn, NY. In 2024 he scored the documentary ¡Casa Bonita Mi Amor!, about Trey Parker and Matt Stone’s quest to save a beloved hometown institution (produced by MTV Documentary Films). He also scored season 3 of the Netflix Show Girls5Eva
In 2024 he arranged an evening of music by playwright and Theater Artist Ethan Lipton for a concert produced by Lincoln Center at Alice Tully Hall. In addition to writing all the orchestral arrangements, Vulcano conducted the orchestra and choir.
In 2023 he scored Mulligan, an animated comedy created by Robert Carlock and Sam Means and produced by Little Stranger for Netflix
In 2021 he scored Paul Schrader's The Card Counter, starring Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish and Willem Dafoe.
In 2019, he scored the series Briarpatch, starring Rosario Dawson. The show was created by Andy Greenwald and Executive Produced by Sam Esmail for USA Network. The LA Times named Briarpatch one of the top 10 shows of 2020.
A long association with Jeff Richmond and Tina Fey began during the SNL years, through 7 seasons of 30 Rock, culminating in his work as co-composer on Great News (NBC) and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt (Netflix). His comedy work continued with Keith Powell’s web series Keith Broke his Leg, the feature Gayby directed by Jonathan Lisecki and more recently the feature Modern Persuasion, directed by Lisecki and Alex Appel. He has scored 3 award winning documentaries: Unfinished Spaces (2011), The Longest Game (2014), Getting Naked: A Burlesque Story (2018), and the psychological thriller My Name is David (2015). Other recent documentaries are the HBO film, One Nation Under Stress, directed by Marc Levin, and The Turning Point by Ferne Pearlstein for MSNBC News.
Vulcano worked frequently with legendary producer Hal Willner, with whom he shared a passion for the music of Nino Rota. He contributed arrangements and conducted the orchestra for Willner/Rota concerts at The Barbican (London), the Venice Biennale, Lincoln Center and The Stone (NYC). He has shared the stage with Carla Bley, Steve Swallow, Mike Gibbs, Steven Bernstein, Art Baron, Gary Lucas, Kate St. John, Marc Almond, Courtney Love, among many others.
In 2015 Willner brought Vulcano together with Eric Mingus to realize Mingus’ vision of The Who’s Tommy as an evening length Jazz Opera. Vulcano arranged the entire work, using styles spanning the history of Jazz, with vocal performances by Yael Stone (Orange is the New Black), Gavin Friday, Robert Forster, Harper Simon, Camille O’Sullivan, Elana Stone and Mingus himself. The show premiered in 2015 at The Adelaide Festival in Australia, with Vulcano conducting and playing guitar.
Vulcano has been called on to orchestrate scores by iconic composers such as Angelo Badalamenti and Paris based Japanese composer Jun Miyake.