 Ramon
Ricker is Senior Associate Dean for Professional Studies, Director of
the Institute for Music Leadership and Professor of Saxophone at the
Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY, USA.
As
a senior administrator at Eastman, Dr. Ricker has been instrumental in
shaping Eastman’s innovative Arts Leadership curriculum that offers
courses on Entrepreneurship and Careers, Leadership and Administration,
Performance, Contemporary Orchestral Issues and The Healthy Musician.
He
has been a full-time Eastman faculty member since 1972, and for nine
years served as the Chair of the Department of Winds, Brass and
Percussion (1989-98).
His association with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra first began as
a clarinet soloist in 1972. In 1973 he won a position in the RPO as a
member of the clarinet section, and continues to play in the orchestra
today. Since 1996 he has also served on its Board of Directors.
He
frequently performs as a guest saxophone and clarinet soloist and
clinician in high schools and colleges throughout Europe and North
America, and his books on jazz improvisation and saxophone technique as
well as many of his compositions are looked to as standards in the field
with over 130,000 copies sold world-wide and translations in French and
Japanese.
He
has performed and contracted the music for hundreds of television and
radio commercials and themes, including national accounts for ABC, NBC,
HBO and Arts and Entertainment. As a composer and arranger he has been
honored by grants from the National Endowment, New York State Council on
the Arts, Creative Artist Public Service, Meet the Composer and ASCAP.
His arrangements have been commissioned by the Rochester Philharmonic,
and the American, Atlanta, Cincinnati and North Carolina Symphonies, and
his works are published by Advance Music (Germany), Alphonse Leduc
(Paris), ATN (Tokyo), Warner/Chappel (USA) and Jamey Aebersold (USA). |
