Richard I. St.

Rick was born and raised in New York City.
After spending several early years knocking out tones, notes, rhythms and sounds on anything he could find, he began studying music, playing piano accordion, when he was 8 years old. Once he hit his teens he switched to piano and organ and started playing with various bands and writing songs. His early bands opened shows for the likes of the Young Rascals, Reperatta and the Del-Rons, Jay and the Americans, The Blues Magoos, The Four Tops, The Vanilla Fudge, Chuck Berry, several well known Motown, R&B and rock acts, and worked as the back up band for the performances of many name acts of the 60’s and 70’s including Martha and the Vandellas, Lenny Welch. Through the years he’s played keyboards both live and in the studio with numerous bands and toured throughout the world with several well known acts.
He has recently performed and recorded with Floyd Sneed, the drummer who played on every one of Three Dog Night’s hits both on the road and in the studio.
In 1986 he created, wrote and produced, “A.M. – The Pre-Invasion Musical” which opened to critical acclaim in Los Angeles, and has enjoyed runs in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Hawaii, and Lake Tahoe. Rick also plays accordion, melodica, guitar and bass.
His musical influences include in no special order Jimmy Smith, Pine Top Perkins, Al Kooper, Keith Emerson, Nicky Hopkins, Ian Stewart, Ray Manzarek, Booker T, Jerry Lee Lewis, Motown, the Rolling Stones, the Who, the Kinks, the Beatles, the British Invasion, Girl Groups, Phil Spector, Doo Wop, R&B, Blues, Country, Classical, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Hip Hop, Steely Dan, The Beach Boys, Love, Arthur Lee, The Doors, Santana, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, H.P. Lovecraft, Herbie Hancock, Dave Brubeck, Billy Preston, Swing, and any and all music that's good and/or unique.

Rick loves to teach music, and has taught on and off, when time allowed, for the past twenty years. His thorough knowledge of music theory combined with a love of playing by ear and feel, enable him to customize his teaching to a student’s abilities and goals.