Ricky Perry is a guitarist, songwriter, and arranger who was born in Caracas, Venezuela and raised in Huntsville, AL.  From 2003-2011, he lived in Nashville, TN, where he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music with an emphasis in guitar performance, composition, and arranging from Belmont University. 

Ricky has performed, written, and recorded music since the age of seventeen, playing throughout Alabama and Tennessee with the jazz-fusion band, Del, during his college career.  After graduating, Ricky continued to perform, arrange, and record with various Nashville artists.  Most recently, he played lead guitar for Daniel Ellsworth & the Great Lakes, recording and arranging songs on the album Civilized Man.

From 2010-2011, Ricky was an AmeriCorps member for Community HealthCorps in Nashville and a music therapy volunteer at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital.  As an AmeriCorps member, he worked in non-profit clinics providing patient outreach, education, and support in underserved communities.  Here he created the free bilingual music program “Whistle While You Wait/Música Mientras Esperas,” which allowed patients to listen, learn, or play music while waiting for appointments.  As a volunteer, Ricky affirmed his desire to pursue music therapy as a career, playing music for and with children of all ages with various illnesses.

Ricky is a first-year graduate student at NYU’s Music Therapy program where he is engaged in fieldwork at the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy.