by Lauren Vogel Weiss

Dr. Cosmo A. “Gus” Barbaro, longtime percussion teacher and marching arts adjudicator, died on January 2, 2026 at the age of 84.

Born on November 14, 1941 in Auburn, New York, Barbaro graduated from Auburn High School in 1959. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in music education from New York’s Ithaca College in 1964 before earning his Master’s degree in music education from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale in 1968.

Barbaro joined the music faculty at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania in 1970, where he taught for 34 years before retiring in 2004. He served as the Director of Percussion Studies and also taught classes in musicology and ethnomusicology, as well as serving as the director of the University’s Performing Arts Series. During this time, Gus also studied at the University of Pittsburgh, earning his Doctor of Philosophy degree in ethnomusicology in 1992.

Throughout his life, Barbaro was involved in the drum and bugle corps activity, including corps such as the Geneva Appleknockers, Auburn Purple Lancers, Rochester Crusaders, Rochester Empire Statesmen, Erie Thunderbirds, Dutch Boy (Ontario, Canada), Chicago Cavaliers, and Connecticut Hurricanes.

Jim Catalano, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Percussion at Notre Dame University and longtime former Marketing and Trade Show Manager for Ludwig/Musser (a division of Conn-Selmer), was a high school student marching snare drum in the Erie Thunderbirds Drum and Bugle Corps in the early 1970s. “Gus was an exacting instructor for the drum line,” recalled Catalano. “He taught precision and musicality with the ear and eyes of an eagle. He was always fair, tough, and inspirational – no dilly-dallying. Gus brought out the best in you.”

Years later, Catalano worked with Barbaro, who became a Ludwig clinician and endorser around 1990. “Gus was a joyful guy when you got to know him as a colleague, as opposed to being in his drum line,” added Catalano. “I experienced both sides of him over several decades.”

Barbaro also served as an adjudicator for Drum Corps International (DCI), Drum Corps Associates (DCA), the All-American Judges Association, the Pennsylvania Federation of Judges, and the Central States Judges Association.

In a March 2017 article in Percussive Notes, George Lindstrom, co-founder of Winter Guard International (WGI), stated that Gus Barbaro was one of four people – along with Len Carey, Ward Durrett, and himself – who, in 1992, helped organize WGI’s indoor marching percussion competition, including rules and judging criteria. From 1993-96, Barbaro was the first Director of Education for the WGI Percussion division. In 1997, he replaced Durrett as WGI’s Director of Percussion, a position Gus held for two years.

Ward Durrett, a veteran in the percussion industry and member of the WGI Hall of Fame, remembered his friend and colleague. “I had the opportunity to work with Gus when he participated in the popular Ludwig Percussion Symposiums that were making the rounds on college campuses back in the early ‘90s. He had so much knowledge and experience to share with all the participants. And he had the greatest laugh!”

In 1990, Barbaro was inducted into the World Drum Corps Hall of Fame and in 2006, he was inducted into the WGI Hall of Fame. In a 2006 WGI video, Dennis DeLucia, a member of the DCI, PAS, WGI, and World Drum Corps Halls of Fame, stated, “Gus was one of those judges who forced us, as instructors, to play more musically. He was one of the folks who got us out of the realm of just worrying about how clean a roll was, but forced us to think about how musicala roll was, how musical the phrase was.

“I have [judges’] tapes that I have saved because of his incredible reaction,” DeLucia continued. “It was those reactions, and quality of input from him as a judge, that really inspired me, as a writer and a teacher, to keep going and striving for more.”

DeLucia added, “Gus judged with his heart and soul as well as his brain and percussion pedigree.”

Catalano summarized his former drum instructor and colleague. “Gus Barbaro was a good guy and a pillar of our percussive arts.”

Memorials may be made to the DCI Memorial Scholarship c/o Drum Corps International, 2495 Directors Row, Suite I, Indianapolis, IN 46241.