Rick Sherman Biography

Live Performance	Music and Audio Production

Rick Sherman began playing the piano in his home town of Kansas City at the age of four, emulating his father, professional pianist Art Sherman. Rick began performing professionally in a rock band at the age of 12 with three of his best friends, and continued with them through junior high school, high school, and college. At the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Sherman and his friends performed in Lonny Fame and The Belltones, a popular 1950’s-era nostalgia band, touring Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Colorado, and Illinois. While in college, Rick studied music theory and composition privately with instructor John Elliot. After receiving his B.A. degree in Psychology from Kansas University, where he taught KU’s first Parapsychology class and minored in music, Sherman performed in various groups in Kansas City and, starting in 1975, in Southern California.

Sherman has also served as a keyboard product demonstrator for musical instrument companies Fender Rhodes (demonstrating the Chroma synthesizer), Roland Corp. US (demonstrating various MIDI keyboards and sound modules), and InVision Interactive (demonstrating the renowned “Miroslav Vitous Symphonic Orchestra” sample library). Sherman’s piano studies continued under the tutelage of Dick Powell in Costa Mesa and Terry Trotter (accompanist for Natalie Cole, and composer of the theme for “Everybody Loves Raymond”) in Studio City.

Sherman uses high-tech musical equipment for both live performance and in his recording studio. For live performance, while also maintaining The Rick Sherman Duo, Rick Sherman Trio, and Rick Sherman Band, he often uses electronic musical instruments to perform in a modern “one-man-band” format. Since 1978, Sherman has appeared most frequently at popular nightspots in Newport Beach.

Artist Steve Simon has honored Sherman with “landmark” status by including him in his book “Newport Beach; Celebrating Ninety Years”. Sherman is the only person thus recognized in this book of paintings of Newport Beach landmarks.

Along with the nightclub performances, private parties, weddings, and corporate functions that Rick performs for, another aspect of live performance for which he has received recognition involves his work for various charitable organizations. Sherman has raised funds for the American Red Cross, served as musical director for Mothers and Others Against Child Abuse (including a roast with Milton Berle, Joey Bishop, Stan Freeberg, Buzz Aldrin, and fashion critic Mr. Blackwell), and has provided annual Christmas party performances for the past several years for Project Cuddle, The Make-A-Wish Foundation, and the children at the Orangewood Children’s Home. Rick received his Lifetime Membership Award, alongside Magic Johnson, from Mothers and Others Against Child Abuse.

While live performance offers one avenue of expression for Rick Sherman’s musical talents, another equally important aspect of his career involves scoring and recording music for video and film, as well as providing numerous other audio services, including sound design, voiceover recording and editing, and ADR (Automated Dialog Replacement). Since 1983, Sherman has become widely recognized as one of the most skilled and prolific composers for the video and film industry in Orange County. Working out of his own recording studio, Sherman Sound Suite, which is located within the Orange County Production Studios complex (one of the largest production/post-production facilities in Orange County), Rick uses computers, analog and digital MIDI musical instruments, and digital recording technology to compose and record soundtracks for various television shows, commercials, films, and corporate videos. Sherman’s client roster includes scoring music for Century 21, Mattel Toys, Isuzu, Hooked On Phonics, The Vons Companies, Allstate Insurance, Mazda, Subaru, Carl’s Jr., Tarbell Realty, Sea World, Toshiba, Toyota/Lexus, Taco Bell, Ditech.com (the national TV spots for 7 consecutive years), Disneyland, Universal Studios, and the list goes on. Up until December of 2013, Rick’s music was heard for over 16 years every weeknight on PBS SoCaL (KOCE-TV) with his theme song for “Real Orange”, a news/magazine show about Orange County.

In 2010, Sherman received an Emmy nomination in the “Audio” category for his work on “Voices of a Never Ending Dawn”, a World War I feature-length documentary broadcast nationally on PBS stations. This work included virtually all of the various “job tasks” performed at his studio: music composing, music editing, sound effects editing, voiceover recording and editing, ADR, noise reduction, and audio sweetening. Sherman has also received numerous awards from the International Television and Video Association and the Association of Visual Communicators for his musical compositions.

Rick is a proud composer and publisher member of ASCAP, one of the primary U.S. music licensing/performing rights organizations. Rick Sherman has served on the Board of Directors for 17 years (including over 4 years as President) of the Media Alliance of Orange County, an organization dedicated to elevating the awareness and image of the film and video production/post-production media industry in Orange County. Sherman was Executive Producer of the 2005 and 2006 Newport Beach Film Festival Awards Ceremonies.