Richard Padrón is a guitarist and composer living and working in New York City. Having recorded and performed with such artists as Paquito D'Rivera, Michele Rosewoman, Michael Phillip Mossman, Zé Luis, Benny Reid, Antonio Hart, Tony DeSare and various other artists of varying genres reinforce his versatility and make him a growing influence in the New York music scene.
Richard was born in Havana, Cuba in 1982. Immigrated to Miami in 1988 and lived there until 2003. Although the only musician in the family, there was an overabundance of both music and support. Growing up around Beny Moré, Fernado Alvarez, Tchaikovsky, Irakere and Billie Holiday recordings was a staple, instilling within him a musical appreciation from an early age that would later provide a rich musical foundation to draw from.
At the age of 12, Richard began playing guitar and was admitted to the prestigious New World School of the Arts, in Miami, where he began formal conservatory training when he was 16. Before graduating he started playing with some of Miami's most reputable musicians and ensembles such as Ira Sullivan, Othello Mollineaux, Gary Campbell, For If the Flies and Carlos Averhoff. Intuitively utilizing his musical heritage as well as the musical diversity Miami had to offer, he developed a unique style of both playing
and composing. Drawing from many genres, he breathes new life with an inventive approach to the guitar as well as a compositional particularity. As a result of living in New York for the past 7 years, Richard has integrated himself in the highly unforgiving and competitive New York music scene, paving his own path as a guitarist as well as a composer.
Press
"Guitarist Richard Padrón picked his way in and out of a stunning electric solo, punctuated by furious
Metheny-esque runs." -Mark Keating of Global Rhythm Magazine
"Padrón's electric guitar solo is a balancing act between Carlos Santana and Russ Freeman." -
Woodrow Wilkins of All About Jazz
