Born
in Utah and raised in West Texas, Ray Lynch (aka Raymond Lynch)
spent the earlier part of his musical career as a performer on the
classical guitar and the lute. As a composer and producer, Lynch has
won 3 Billboard Awards, written five albums, and sold over 2 million
albums without the benefit of live performances or videos.
Lynch is a classically trained guitarist.
His father was a lawyer; his mother was a classical pianist and
watercolor artist, and Lynch's classical music training began at
the age of six with the piano. At the age of twelve, after a brief
encounter with the ukulele at a summer camp for boys, Lynch acquired
a recording of the Spanish virtuoso Andr s Segovia, and was
so captivated by the subtle yet profoundly resonant depth and expressive
range of the classical guitar and its music, that his own musical
aspirations took a decisive turn in that direction, along with an
intensification of purpose that became a passion. Although the piano
was certainly fun to play, and a glib rendition of Cowboy Boogie
at triple speed seemed to wow friends and relatives, the piano had
never evoked the kind of immediate and natural emotional response
in Lynch that the guitar did.
Lynch attended both St. Stephen's
Episcopal School as well as Austin High School, and completed a
year of college at the University of Texas, Austin, where he became
dissatisfied with his academic studies which included philosophy
and psychology. He then moved to Barcelona to study with the renowned
teacher of classical guitar, Eduardo Sainz de la Maza,
under whose guidance Lynch practiced guitar for 8 hours a day.
After three years of study in Barcelona
which included music theory, Lynch returned to the U.S., spending
the next three years focusing on music composition at the University
of Texas. While there, he was invited to become a member of the
University of Texas Chamber Singers as their guitarist and lutenist.
Quickly learning to navigate the lute, Lynch joined Morris Beachy
and his "Madrigal Singers" in a whirlwind tour of Europe and the
Near East.
Having acquired a taste for the beauty
of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque music as well as proficiency
on the lute during the years at U.T. Austin, Lynch accepted a second
invitation, this time from the esteemed Renaissance Quartet
in New York City. In New York, he spent the next seven years performing
with the Quartet and other performers who were at the core of the
New York revival of Early Music.
His career as a performing musician
established, Lynch eventually moved to Maine, traveling from his
125-acre farm to perform in many areas of the United States. The
seemingly idyllic world of his private life precipitated a profound
"personal and spiritual" crisis, and Lynch abandoned his music career
to move to California, where he began a long period of intense study
and spiritual growth.
After several years Lynch was moved
again to compose music. His beautiful debut album, The Sky of Mind,
drew upon his classical training and intuitive melodic sense, resulting
in an underground success. Lynch's second album Deep Breakfast
became a classic and the first independently released album to be
certified Gold and then later Platinum by the Recording Industry
Association of America (R.I.A.A.). Deep Breakfast won
Lynch 's
Award for Artist of the Year for his genre, and Lynch's third album,
No Blue Thing, won two
Awards - Album of the Year and Artist of the Year. His fourth and
most classical album, poetically titled Nothing Above My Shoulders but the Evening,
features inspired performances by members of the San Francisco Symphony.
Lynch's latest album, Ray Lynch Best Of,
also introduces 3 new pieces of music: Ralph's Rhapsody,
The Music of What Happens, and a bonus
dance remix of the hit Celestial Soda Pop. His
music is an imaginative and creative blend of acoustic instruments
and keyboards and is best known as New Age, Alternative Pop, and
Contemporary Instrumental.
After deciding to leave BMG/Windham
Hill Records in 2000, Lynch started his own record label Ray Lynch Productions,
under which his entire catalog was released. Ray Lynch Productions
retains ownership of Lynch's copyrights and publishing rights.
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