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Music has always been my calling. I am a music therapist at Northeast Center for Special Care as well as a professional musician and recording artist.

I was born in Queens, NY. At age four my family moved to Long Island and that’s where I grew up. We were a typical middle class suburban household. We had a close family. My mom and dad were teachers. My mom was an elementary school teacher and my dad was a high school English teacher. I also have a younger sister.

When I graduated from high school I went to the State University of New York at Buffalo where I received a B.A. in psychology. In high school I started feeling conflicted. By that time I had already developed an interest in music, however, I felt that I did not want to pursue a music degree so I opted for psychology. I was of two minds to get an education in psychology and also my interest in music.  By then I had developed into a singer-songwriter.

I got very serious about music when I was in college so when I graduated I had decided that I wanted to become a professional musician. My focus was about being a singer-songwriter.

I played professionally for several years and then landed a gig as the featured rock singer/guitarist for the Lester Lanin Orchestra. This was a famous society orchestra that would play exclusive events. I was with Lanin for years and I traveled all around the world. They played a lot of big band, jazz and dance music but I was the featured “rock” guy and specialized in playing that genre of music. I performed at Queen Elizabeth’s Birthday ball at Windsor Castle as well as the late Malcolm Forbes’ “Party of the Century,” and the Royal Wedding of Prince Andrew and Sarah among others.

At the time I never actually heard of music therapy as a profession but when I became aware of it I started doing some research, speaking with people in the field and reading some books. I then became very interested in music therapy as a career and I thought that I would do that in addition to being a professional musician.

After working as a music therapist for a while I began to be recognized for my abilities and it became clearer to me that this is what I was meant to do.

I attended New York University and received an MA in music therapy and later I earned a post-master’s certification at the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy.

Rick playing along with Resident-Neighbors in a music group.

Over the years I’ve worked with many different kinds of populations, children with developmental and physical disabilities, adults with psychiatric disabilities, adults with HIV and AIDS, adults with substance abuse issues. Working now with individuals who have traumatic brain injury is very unique and challenging.

For individuals with brain injury connecting with music helps pull people out of perseverations or pathological kinds of behaviors. By engaging with the person musically you are engaging the part of the person, which is not affected by their impaired cognition or pathology. I can start to draw that part out of them - that creative part of them that is responding artistically. People will start to do things that they may not be normally doing. Basically I engage people in a creative way.

When I find the way into the person creatively, I can help them to grow. People will start to sing a type of song that they may have not sung before, they may construct a melody or play a steady rhythm on a drum. Once they have done things like that they have the potential to grow even further and I try to expand the person musically, thereby expanding their whole range of constructive behaviors.  The idea of music therapy is that people take those things out in the world with them and develop their own community-transferable skills.

Sometimes people who would not normally interact with others will do so in a music group. I’ve had instances of people who are normally adynamic because of a brain injury become very involved in their music group and even take the lead in the group because they can lead a song. They end up providing structure for themselves as well as the other group members.

I’ve had experiences where people will start to retain things like names, the time and location of the group and come to the group on time without prompting. When they make inroads like that with music they can often make inroads in other areas.

I came to Northeast Center as the result of a move. My wife and I were living in the Bronx. After years of city living we decided to relocate and purchased in house in the Hudson Valley. My wife is an art therapist and had heard about the Fine and Performing Arts program here at Northeast Center and that this was an exceptional place to work. So I sent a resume and I was called for an interview.

It was a little intimidating at first because of the level of injury people have and what they have to go through everyday to function and to rehab but I quickly became excited about the idea of bringing music to this population and it’s been very rewarding.

Northeast Center is a very dynamic program. We have a great team of clinicians here and the fine arts are an integral part of the kind of rehabilitation we do.  For me helping people with music to elevate them and to connect with their souls is the important mission that I do here as a music therapist.

* Rick has authored a number of journal articles about music therapy.  Read Developing a Guitar-Based Approach in Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy:  Click Here