RICK DEPIRO

Rick DePiro, (born May 30, 1967) who is known by his stage name Ricky  Dee, is an American Country singer-songwriter, a notable and award  winning jazz pianist, and popular/ jazz organist, and music producer who is rated in the top 25 jazz and rock organists of all time. He has recorded and produced over thirty-five albums.

DePiro is also the founder and a current executive of RADCO Music  Group which includes RADCO Media group. RADCO Music Publishing, JaRic  Records and Entertainment. (a Los Angeles based independent record label  and multimedia company that is located, as well, in Nashville.) and  Carol Lynn Designs (celebrity jewelry designs for American Idol and So  You Think You Can Dance). 

DePiro is the founder and current executive board member of PLAY MUSIC ENJOY LIFE! Inc (a Los Angeles Based National Charity  and IRS recognized 501(c)3 dedicated to bringing Hope and Escape to  Cancer Survivors, Alzheimer's patients and Caregivers and Natural Disaster victims rebuilding their homes AND lives across the USA. He is the son of a steel executive (and hall of fame softball  pitcher) father, Louis, and Jazz vocalist mother, Joan, (whose uncle,  Vincent Nola, founded and owned Nola Studios in New York City and  recorded such luminaries as Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, Jack Jones and  Sammy Davis Jr), and sibling to two younger sisters Deanna, a computer  sales executive and Jacki, a well known Jazz vocalist. He is currently a  partner at JaRic Records and Entertainment. Throughout his career,  DePiro has distinguished himself in a variety of positions in the music  industry as an award winning National Artist for Matsushita /  MCA-Universal with Technics Musical Instruments, Roland Corporation as a  National Artist and Product Specialist, president of RADCO Music and  Music Publishing, participating artist and contributor of the I-AM  workshop, VP of KnoC Management- Hollywood, and founder/co-owner and  current president of RADCO Music Group, Los Angeles. DePiro turned down a  scholarship at Eastman College of Music to attend Daemen College and  Akron University as a music theory, synthesis and music business major.  In 1982 with a qualifying IQ of 165 on an officially monitored exam,  DePiro was made a member of Mensa ranking in the 99.5% of IQ's .

DePiro and his very competent and experienced team of industry  colleagues have created the newly formed PLAY MUSIC ENJOY LIFE! Inc in an  effort to help ALL of their participants  reduce

stress in their day-to-day  lives, help them learn to play Piano quickly and enjoyably without the  burden of daily practice, assist them in experiencing the Music and  Wellness benefits of Recreational Music Making, allow students from ALL  walks of life to enjoy the many benefits of the PLAY MUSIC-ENJOY LIFE!  series so they can play their favorite music right away on the piano and  share their positive experiences, and finally help the  participants "exorcise" the ghost of traditional piano lessons and the fears and bad  memories so often associated with past lesson experiences. Managed by DePiro and industry veterans Will Urban and Troy Michael Aleman, PLAY MUSIC  ENJOY LIFE! is geared to anyone hoping to reduce stress, have fun and  relax while learning to play the piano in a relaxed and friendly  environment with no practice required. PLAY MUSIC ENJOY LIFE! Inc plans  37 locations across the USA by 2022.

Rick DePiro was born in Cleveland, Ohio while his father was finishing an  Engineering degree at Fenn College of Engineering, now part of Cleveland State University. DePiro grew up in the  Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York area and started playing Jazz Organ at  the age of 10. He started playing Piano by age 12 formally studying both  classical and jazz.

DePiro changed his stage name in Country music, (Ricky Dee), in 2000  via earlier advice from Country music mentor and Icon Johnny Cash at the  Universal Amphitheater just prior to Cash’s concert on September 21,  1990. Throughout his extensive performance career DePiro has often in  large part credited his teachers and mentors with his keyboard  proficiency and masterful skills. Some of these professional educators  and performers rank amongst the most well respected and prominent  pianists, organists, keyboardists and orchestrators in modern music  history. DePiro’s list of personal teachers and music mentors includes  Michael O’Boyle, Carlo Annibale, Don Costa, Pat Pace, Dr. Roland  Paolucci, Frank Leone, Jimmy Wozniak, Dr. Michael Boddicker, Dr. Ralph  Turek and Oscar Peterson.

DePiro started performing by “sitting in” with Jazz and Rock bands  throughout NY by invitation at age twelve. His first “steady paid gig”  was as weekly Church pianist at St Matthew’s Church in Buffalo, New York  at age twelve. By age sixteen he recorded two albums and was signed to  Mark Records by owner and producer Vincent Morette (NY) .

He performed his first solo piano-organ concert at age fourteen and  began teaching privately holding twenty-five weekly private students by  the age of seventeen. He has been rated as one of the top 50 Jazz and Rock  organists of all time and one of the top 100 living Jazz pianists in the USA  as well.

Before  he was eighteen, DePiro had roughly thirty-five television appearances,  local and national, airplay on over fifty radio stations nationwide,  had written thirty songs and had composed and performed the ongoing  theme song for the weekly New York TV talk show "Talk Of The Town". Within  that same time-frame, he studied with his Orchestra “idol” Don Costa as  a protege in Beverly Hills, performed at the Emmy Awards, was the  opening act for seven different celebrity artists/bands and along with  his band and vocalist – singing phenomenon (then seven years old) sister  Jacki DePiro won a Tri-State contest  after competing with two-hundred  and ninety-seven professional acts for a center stage concert at New  York indoor Amphitheatre, Melody Fair. He has performed in top venues worldwide including The White House (twice), the Kennedy Center, the Greek Theatre, the Hollywood Bowl, the Ryman Nashville and Carnegie Hall.

DePiro has performed in over 450 cities worldwide performing over 3000 shows and concerts and taught the  benefits of making music as an Artist, and an invited guest speaker /  instructor in more than 120 cities and over 70 universities, colleges  and high schools throughout his career. 

He now excitedly brings his  knowledge and experience to the  PLAY MUSIC – ENJOY LIFE! piano series so  that he can share his expertise and experience with program participant, their Caregivers,  friends and families throughout the USA. 

DePiro lives in the greater Los Angeles area with his wife Pamela and their young  son.

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