Ric DelNero is a talented guitarist/composer based in the central and northeastern Pennsylvania region. Ric was born June 17 1966 in Bloomsburg Pennsylvania. He became fascinated with music at a young age and started collecting records whenever he could. At the age of 12 he bought his first guitar from a friend. His mom and grandmother encouraged him to start guitar lessons and bought him a brand new guitar. The lessons didn't go so well and Ric started learning on his own. He made some friends when he got into high school who played instruments and they decided to start a band. This is where it all started.
He knew that he wanted to play music for the rest of his life. Ric played in several different bands and even started to make a little money at it. He started writing his own music. His original music at this time was very guitar driven rock music. He started listening to classical music and tried his hand at writing some classical guitar pieces. Soon the music he heard in his head was beyond his musical vocabulary.
In 1989 he decided to get some formal musical training. He packed up his car with everything he owned and moved to Atlanta Georgia to attend the Atlanta Institute of Music. There he was introduced to many different styles of music and some great musicians. He got to study with the amazing guitarist Jimmy Herring and got to meet and jam with rock guitar virtuoso Paul Gilbert. His hunger for learning everything he could about music led him to Boston Massachusetts to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. Berklee was an amazing adventure and learning experience for him. He studied with many great teachers and got to play with some incredible musicians. At Berklee he majored in composition and performance. He was on the dean's list for 3 semesters and graduated cum laude in 1994.
Ric decided to move back to his hometown of Bloomsburg in 1995 and try to make a living in music there. He started teaching the guitar at a local music store and immediately had a full schedule. He decided to put a band together to record and perform his original music. The jazz-rock fusion band 180 released their self-titled debut cd in 1998. Around this time Ric started collecting classical music scores. He studied the scores intensely and decided to write some music in this style. The result was two string quartets and his "Symphony No.1." In 2001 he started writing another orchestral score and decided to go to the local university to see if he could get it performed. The head of the music department there was very interested in the score and decided to perform it. Ric's "Symphony No.2" was performed by the Bloomsburg University/Community Orchestra to a full house in the spring of 2001. In 2002 Ric was asked to write a piece for the Bloomsburg University/Community Chamber Orchestra and he had his "Idyll No.1" performed in the fall of 2002 and "Overture To Fate" in 2003. Ric decided to study composition with renown composer John Carbon at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster PA. John's music and composition style had a profound effect on Ric's writing and does to this day.
In 2005 Ric formed the band CHROMATICA and released a cd titled "Out Of Bounds" in 2007. The recording got the attention of a wider audience and gained him some recognition in the jazz world. In 2008 CHROMATICA recorded their second cd "Planet Em". Ric wanted to record some of his more "staight ahead" jazz compositions. He hired grammy award winning drummer Steve Mitchell, saxophonist Rick Hirsch and bassist Andy Seal. "No Picnic" was release in October 2009.
Ric is currenly composing, performing and teaching. He runs his multi-faceted business Orenled Music, which is dedicated to the composition, performance and education of music.