keyboards, composition and lyrics

  

keyboards, composition and lyrics

  

After playing with Fiore di Metallo and other bands of the Venetian area (including Ruins with Alessandro Pizzin, Giorgio Salvadego, Franco Moruzzi and famous guitarist Alex Masi), Riccardo founded the progressive rock band Quanah Parker, first active in 1981-1985 and re-founded in 2005. Then he worked as a pianist in many venues (such as Venice’s St. Mark’s Square) and as a pianist/composer for theater performances.

In 1995 he founded the Afro-Cuban piano/vibes/drums trio Mi Ritmo (formerly called Tumbadoras), then expanded to a quartet, quintet or sextet. Besides Latin standards, Mi Ritmo performed Riccardo’s original compositions (collected in CD Guajira, Real Sound RS 051-0300) and was active until 2004 with several concerts in northern Italy, including the prestigious festivals "Musica dalle due Americhe" (Lecco, with Giorgio Gaslini) and "Settimane Musicali Montelliane" (Montebelluna). More recently, Mi Ritmo has also been active with other line-ups, notably in 2011-2014 as a piano/bass/drums trio with bassist Giuseppe Di Stefano and drummers Stefano Rigato or Wilson Gaitan, and as a piano/drums duo with Massimiliano Conti

Riccardo was "Collaboratore all’orchestrazione" of the first Italian production of George Gershwin’s musical Lady, Be Good! (Venezia, PalaFenice, 2000). Along the years, he has collaborated with various musicians such as Francesco Sartori, Bruno Gennaro, Roberto Rusconi, Alessandro Bedendo, Donella Del Monaco (former singer of Opus Avantra), Alessandro Pasqual, Moreno Marchesin, etc. In 2010, he worked with Tony Pagliuca (historical keyboardist of the prog band Le Orme) in a piano&keyboards duo and as engraver/editor of the scores of all the songs collected in Pagliuca’s CD Apres MIDI.

After playing with Fiore di Metallo and other bands of the Venetian area (including Ruins with Alessandro Pizzin, Giorgio Salvadego, Franco Moruzzi and famous guitarist Alex Masi), Riccardo founded the progressive rock band Quanah Parker, first active in 1981-1985 and re-founded in 2005. Then he worked as a pianist in many venues (such as Venice’s St. Mark’s Square) and as a pianist/composer for theater performances.

In 1995 he founded the Afro-Cuban piano/vibes/drums trio Mi Ritmo (formerly called Tumbadoras), then expanded to a quartet, quintet or sextet. Besides Latin standards, Mi Ritmo performed Riccardo’s original compositions (collected in CD Guajira, Real Sound RS 051-0300) and was active until 2004 with several concerts in northern Italy, including the prestigious festivals "Musica dalle due Americhe" (Lecco, with Giorgio Gaslini) and "Settimane Musicali Montelliane" (Montebelluna). More recently, Mi Ritmo has also been active with other line-ups, notably in 2011-2014 as a piano/bass/drums trio with bassist Giuseppe Di Stefano and drummers Stefano Rigato or Wilson Gaitan, and as a piano/drums duo with Massimiliano Conti.

Riccardo was "Collaboratore all’orchestrazione" of the first Italian production of George Gershwin’s musical Lady, Be Good! (Venezia, PalaFenice, 2000). Along the years, he has collaborated with various musicians such as Francesco Sartori, Bruno Gennaro, Roberto Rusconi, Alessandro Bedendo, Donella Del Monaco (former singer of Opus Avantra), Alessandro Pasqual, Moreno Marchesin, etc. In 2010, he worked with Tony Pagliuca (historical keyboardist of the prog band Le Orme) in a piano&keyboards duo and as engraver/editor of the scores of all the songs collected in Pagliuca’s CD Apres MIDI.

He is the author of more than twenty music books (methods, collections of compositions, transcriptions and piano arrangements) published in the USA by Ekay Music, Steinway & Sons and Kjos Music, and in UK by Soliloquy Music.
Several of his compositions and musical or musicological contributions on progressive rock, jazz and Latin music have been published in leading magazines such as Piano Today, The Piano Stylist, Keyboard Classics, Sheet Music Magazine, Piano Today, Ring Shout, Rassegna Veneta di Studi Musicali, Jazz, Jazz, Venezia Arti.
[link]. He served as Contributing Editor and music engraver to both Piano Today and Sheet Music Magazine, and he is the official translator of all the volumes in the Italian edition of the pedagogical piano series BASTIEN (Kjos Music/Rugginenti Editore).

Many of his compositions or piano arrangements have been performed in Italy and abroad by various bands, soloists and classical chamber ensembles such as Duo Giannantonio Mutto/Leonardo Sapere, Quintetto Pianoforte ed Archi, Quarteto Nuevo (USA), Alliance Band (Uzbekistan), Mark Porter (USA), etc.:

Besides performing with his own bands, Riccardo is also active as a solo pianist.

Many of his note-for-note transcriptions of stride piano recordings have been recorded on CD and/or included in repertoire by well-known pianists Marco Fumo, Alan Feinberg, Massimiliano Damerini, Meral Guneyman, Donna Coleman, Sue Keller, Dan Mouyard, and others.

He taught "Civiltà Musicale Afroamericana" at the University of Venezia for ten years and taught the "Laboratorio di Composizione e Improvvisazione" of the "Corso di Letteratura Pianistica Afro-Americana" at the Conservatory of Castelfranco Veneto. He teaches Modern Piano and Keyboards at various music schools, and has given concerts, seminars and conferences on jazz and Latin piano, Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk etc. at various festivals and conservatories, Teatro Metastasio (Prato), CDpM-Centro Didattico Produzione Musica (Bergamo), Accademia Tadini (Lovere), Milestone Jazz Club (Piacenza), etc.

He wrote about three hundreds radio programs on jazz for RAI-RadioTre and authored liner notes and booklets for LPs and CDs by Cesare Poggi, Massimiliano Damerini, Manantiales, etc.

Besides classical, jazz, Celtic and Latin music, his main sources of inspiration are great prog bands and keyboardists such as Rick Wakeman, Yes, Genesis, Rick Van Der Linden, ELP, and Banco.

RECORDINGS:
With Tumbadoras: four original songs in the compilation Beach Volley & Glamour Show (independent production);
With Mi Ritmo: Guajira (Real Sound RS 051-0300);
With Quanah Parker: Quanah! (diplodisc dpl 004); Suite degli Animali Fantastici (M.P. Records MPRCD068); Nel Castello delle Fate (Scivales Music SM007);
As a solo pianist: Silvano Zanatto, Just One Hand - 10 piano solos dedicated to Japan (independent production, buy online);
As a pianist with singer Elisabetta Montino and Monteverdi New Voices Vocal Ensemble directed by Silvia Buscato: the song After The Rain in the CD Monteverdi New Voices & Friends, reprinted in the international compilation DIPLOCOMP: A Sampler Diplodisc (Diplodisc dpl 010), buy online;
As guest keyboardist: some pieces in the CD Fonetica: Eppure (2014, Astro Rondine AST 001, buy online) and in the eponymous CD by the progressive rock band Elisir d'Ambrosia.