Biography

John Di Bartolo is a “wandering minstrel”, writer, and multimedia designer who has played a founding role in many of the exciting endeavors and concepts that have grown out of the fertile ‘chance-meeting’ grounds of fantasy & related scholarly communities; and can often be seen speaking at the events of the Mythgard Institute. John’s wanderings include the nationally touring Celtic fusion bands; Fathom, King Keltic, and the Tolkien-inspired folk fantasy project: Lonely Mountain Band. John’s various musical projects have garnered hundreds of thousands of downloads, and views through iTunes, and other digital outlets, including dozens of viral videos on YouTube. Fans of his music have even gone to the lengths of converting John’s music into a format that can be played within the virtual game world of Lord of the Rings Online; where as founder of the LOTRO kinship Lonely Mountain Band, John won “Best Gaming Guild” in the 2013 Dragon Slayer Awards by GuildLaunch.com and has been featured on multiple news outlets including the BBC. From tabletop role-playing games and backyard adventures of the imagination to historical and fantasy reading, bible scholarship, and music composition; the spiritual has ever been tied to imagination for this minstrel. John has made it part of his life’s goal to keep the road well traversed that leads to the “cottage of lost play.” The music of the Lonely Mountain Band can be heard and purchased at http://www.MinstrelSongs.com