Ricardo Richards performs as part of WITF Music on March 1, 2024. (Jeremy Long - WITF)
WITF Music: Ricardo Richards
Sharing the intellectual and emotional impact of Bach
-
Joe Ulrich
Ricardo Richards performs as part of WITF Music on March 1, 2024. (Jeremy Long - WITF)
Lancaster musician Ricardo Richards has been steeped in music his whole life. He grew up in Jamaica and began playing bass professionally at the age of 12. Richards would perform on his father’s variety TV show and his family’s house was a place where well-known musicians gathered. He later moved to the U.S. and became a professor teaching sociology, political science and international relations. He’s released a CD of classical guitar arrangements of works by Bach and in our studio he played a couple pieces and talked about his life, his teaching and why Bach is so important to him.
Joe Ulrich: Were you raised in a musical family?
Ricardo Richards: Oh, absolutely. Yes. My dad, Richard Ace, is his professional name, he was the pianist on Bob Marley’s earliest recordings. So I grew up in a house where musicians of that caliber were coming in and out. Music would be the soundtrack to my earliest memories, whether it’s Bob Marley or Beethoven or Bach, because my dad is also classically trained. So music has always been a part of my life.
Joe Ulrich: When did you get into teaching? Because you’re a professor as well. How did that fit into your whole trajectory with life?
Ricardo Richards: When I was a child, I did a television program in Jamaica and, in Jamaica in those days, if you were on TV, practically everyone saw you because there was only one station at the time.
Jeremy Long / WITF
Ricardo Richards performs as part of WITF Music on March 1, 2024. (Jeremy Long – WITF)
I went to school the next day and I felt 10 feet tall because everybody recognized me. And then my teacher called me aside and said, Hey, I know you’re on television. I know you have a future in music and your family’s in music, but I want you to take your education very seriously because at the end of the day, you never know. You might need it to fall back on.
And that turned into a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania where I studied American government and political science. And then I also studied in the United Kingdom at Cambridge University, where I studied international relations. And that turned into a teaching career.
Joe Ulrich: Does music crossover into any of your work?
Ricardo Richards: They crossover in the sense that it doesn’t matter where you are in the political divide. Everybody loves music. So that’s the ultimate tool to unite people is music.
Whether I’m playing reggae music, or if I’m playing rock and roll, or if I’m playing jazz or a classical. That’s an excellent opportunity to have a conversation.
Jeremy Long / WITF
Ricardo Richards performs as part of WITF Music on March 1, 2024. (Jeremy Long – WITF)
Joe Ulrich: You had said that you’re on kind of a mission to spread the music of Bach. What’s so important to you about it?
Ricardo Richards: What I like about it, on one hand, it’s so technically challenging. But on the other hand, it’s so spiritually moving. When I began playing it for myself it was just something for my personal enrichment, something I think intellectually challenged me and emotionally was very fulfilling for me.
But then as I started playing in public and I saw how people reacted to it, I thought, huh. Okay. They love the music. They don’t know exactly what it is. So I thought, maybe I should make a point to share his legacy. See if I could spread the message intellectually what it does to your mind and emotionally where it takes you.
Between the two, I can’t think of a better way to spend an hour or two.
A collection of interviews, photos, and music videos, featuring local musicians who have stopped by the WITF performance studio to share a little discussion and sound. Produced by WITF’s Joe Ulrich.
