Richie English
BTPM Classical Evening and Entering Music HostBorn and raised in Buffalo, New York, Richie English has worked extensively as a pianist, teacher, and composer since childhood. He began studying piano at ten years old with Frieda Manes, and within a year was the youngest piano teacher registered with Denton, Cottier & Daniels in state history. The recipient of five music scholarships, he continued studying piano under Stephen Manes at SUNY Buffalo and graduated Magna cum Laude with his performance degree in 2007. He performed twice for the Dalai Lama in 2006 during his visit to the university that year.
Richie received a master’s degree from SUNY Buffalo in music theory and went on to Western University in London, Ontario as a PhD candidate studying theory and composition in 2009. In 2012 he was hired by the Goo Goo Dolls to be composer-in-residence at GCR Audio, the studio owned and operated by the band’s bassist, Robby Takac. Since then, he has composed numerous orchestrations for world-renowned bands and artists including Goo Goo Dolls, Michael Franti, The Reign of Kindo, Cardiacs, and Jillette Johnson. His work with these artists has led to his being credited on numerous Billboard Top Ten songs and albums over the past six years. Moody Blues founder Denny Laine (who later joined Paul McCartney to form Wings) hired Richie to orchestrate his long-awaited stage work “Arctic Song”- a 16-song music theater piece that they debuted to great acclaim at Rosch Recital Hall in November, 2016.
in 2017, Richie was asked by Goo Goo Dolls to compose a new orchestration for the band’s record-breaking song “Iris,” and conduct the newly-scored song onstage with the band at Darien Lake to a crowd of 11,000. Richie is now a member of the WNED family, where he proudly co-created and co-hosts “Entering Music”. Richie is also the host for “From the Piano Bench” and Friday Late Night.
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After talking about Shostakovich, who often lived and worked as though there was a gun to his head, Richie and I wanted to talk about another composer who went silent for a long time. -
While watching an old film, Roberta, a 1934 musical comedy starring Irene Dunne and Joel McCrea with music by Jerome Kern, Stratton heard a great tune called “I Won’t Dance,” with lyrics by Dorothy Fields.
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After a lifetime of listening to recordings of great pieces of music that have been made note-perfect, when Stratton is seated at a concert, and he hears a mistake, it really bothers him.
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Stratton finally caught the movie Maestro, about the life of Leonard Bernstein. He was appalled. The film was about Bernstein’s marriage and his efforts to be a both a loving husband and a doting father while having love affairs with other men. Who watching that film, Stratton wondered, would ever learn that Leonard Bernstein was America’s pre-eminent musical genius? He had to check in with Richie about this.
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Richie has a problem; he’s got a tune stuck in his head. And it’s not his tune. Can Stratton help?
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Online Stratton was asked to name the 10 best conductors leading orchestras today. He took what he thought was a bold step; he included JoAnn Falletta’s name. When he saw the 25 or so lists submitted from correspondents around the world, 19 listed among their 10 choices JoAnn Falletta. Could it be? Then just a few weeks ago Richie announced that we should do an episode about JoAnn, “because, you know, she’s a great conductor.”
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Nancy, our Music Librarian, was telling Stratton about a piece of music that she thought was “psychologically brilliant”. But what Richie heard her say was that the piece of music was “psychedelically brilliant”. Being Richie, he loved that description. When we explained that he got it wrong, he proclaimed, “who really wants to hear a piece because it’s psychologically brilliant, but anyone would want to hear a piece that’s psychedelically brilliant.”
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Richie has often told us that Danny Elfman’s score to “Batman” was what inspired him to pursue music as his vocation. Stratton on the other hand discovered Danny Elfman not just as another very good film composer, but as a composer of what Stratton would call concert pieces in the best tradition of classical music. After reviewing Elfman’s unlikely journey as a music maker, Richie and Stratton discuss Stratton’s belief that Elfman has become a composer who is forging the future of classical music.
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Stratton noticed that Richie has a brother who is a working musician. He began to wonder about other brothers who both have made music their livelihood. In the classical period there were the Haydn brothers, Joseph and Michael. Then in the full bloom of musical romanticism two young pianists became the toast of Russia, the brothers Anton and Nicolai Rubinstein. In our time at least two successful “bands” were built around brothers; The Kinks featuring Dave and Ray Davies, and the British band with the warring brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher.
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JAZZ FUSION is a distinct strain of American musical practice; one that Stratton has largely ignored over a lifetime of music listening. Can Richie really catch him up by, once again, making Stratton apply his considerable skills as a listener to a genre of music that has enriched Richie’s own life?
