Rick Kelley

Description

Rick Kelley is an extremely interactive singer-songwriter-one man band musician who has performed over 4,000 concerts nationwide to audiences of all ages, pre school to Seniors. Whether it's a Elementary School assembly or a Library program or a Festival stage or a Fine Arts theatrical event or an Adult Corporate program or a simple show at the Senior Center, Rick will have your audiences singing along, dancing along, moving, laughing and definitely getting involved and participating with the event. This is why Rick has been called "The Ultimate Icebreaker" and a guaranteed crowd pleaser.

Work Sample

The video clip is of my song "Random Acts of Kindness" and is a good example of how I combine my original live music with participation opportunities for the kids in the audience at school assemblies. Just about every song I perform has some way for the audience to get involved through movement, dance, singalongs, relay races, and more.

This video clip shows more of a fine arts, theatrical setting and involves my performing 4 of my original songs and the usual interaction with the crowd. The songs represented are "Don't Just Sit There….Read Something", "I Read About It In A Book", "Random Acts of Kindness"(again), and "Hands Are Made For Helping". Notice how the adults in the audience are having just as much fun participating as the kids.

This final video is for the purpose of just showing a compilation of more songs and the interaction components with each. All the songs are shorten so as to include more of them in the time required.

My work samples simply show how I do what I do. It shows my keyboard/drum machine/vocals setup, one man band format. It shows how I engage an audience and demonstrates some of the activities I encourage my audiences to perform. What it doesn't show is the experience I have from performing over 4,000 live shows all over the country for ages pre school to Seniors. That experience makes it possible for me to handle just about any situation that may arise, be it booking a show, on the road getting to an event, setting up for that event, dealing with any hesitation on the audiences part to get involved on stage, and meeting and greeting people after a show. I strongly believe all aspects of performing for people requires an equal effort in all these areas and is what makes an artist a professional.

History

I've been performing music my entire adult life starting with band and choir all through school, then in clubs in Los Angeles with my band "The Rhythm Kings", and finally starting in 1985 with my one man band, keyboard/drum machine/vocals format at over 3,500 college campuses all over the U.S. I was voted Coffeehouse Entertainer of the Year 4 times, and Family/Children's Entertainer of the Year as well. Over the past 15 years, I've added a Children's/Family interactive program to my offerings and have performed at hundreds of School Assemblies, Libraries, Festivals, Fine Arts venues, all over the U.S. In 2006 I also started a non profit called Music With A Message for Kids, Inc.and through that organization have performed over 400 FREE programs to inner city schools throughout the U.S.

Artistic Vision

I've always viewed music as a vehicle to bring people of any age together and get people INVOLVED. All of my shows encourage the audience to not only listened to my songs, but also become active participants in what they are hearing and make it a joyous event that they will remember for a long time afterward. I believe music is a unifying medium and is needed more now then it ever has been.

Programs for Specific Audience(s) Expertise

The interactive nature of my shows never changes whether if I'm performing for kids or mostly Adults, or Seniors. The only change would be in my choice of song lists and appropriate humor for that age group. I've also adapted my program when I've performed for audiences with physical-behavioral-disabilities, hearing impaired audiences, or emotionally impaired situations by changing the movements or difficulty of responses accordingly.