John Ryan was born in 1959 as the seventh of eight children. His father, a classically trained pianist, had a 30-year career in the National Security Agency in Washington D.C., while his mother was devoted to their large family and also maintained a successful career in real estate.
Throughout his youth, John was often found listening to music for hours. At an early age it was discovered that John could play anything that he had ever heard. He would sit at the grand piano in the living room of their home, picking out tunes that he had heard and playing them by ear. The only piano instructor he ever had promptly resigned in frustration over John’s innate skill at playing music perfectly after hearing it only once. This motivated, rather than discouraged John and he commenced to musically educate himself by reading books, learning chords, and further developing his ear by learning a wide variety of music from different genres.
As one of the youngest of eight children, John found himself exposed to a broad range of personalities, influences, and situations on a daily basis. John remembers going from room to room and hearing different music coming from each door. His father would often be listening to classical music or jazz in one room, his older brothers listening to Buddy Holley, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan, and his sisters playing The Beatles or Motown records in another room.
Known as a virtuoso pianist from early childhood, John began his professional career as a 13-year old teenager. His formative years were spent playing liturgical music as a church organist, and then progressed to performing piano and keyboards with jazz, blues, rock, and pop groups. He later combined his studies of music theory/composition with his passion for the acoustic piano and has enjoyed a 30+ year career as an in-demand solo pianist and composer.
Throughout his career, John has immersed himself in the music of the great American popular songwriters such as Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rodgers & Hart, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, Johnny Mercer, etc., and has developed his own unique piano style while playing original solo piano arrangements of their classic songs.
A remarkable fact about John is that he was a professional firefighter with the City of Melbourne, Florida, for 25 years while regularly playing concerts and solo piano at the finest clubs along the east coast of Florida. Although he loved performing and his services as a pianist were always in-demand, his real passion was composing original songs. As he sat in front of the piano every evening playing song requests, popular tunes and standards, he was continually writing his own compositions. After building his state-of-the-art recording studio, John’s career proceeded further into recording projects, writing and recording original compositions, as well as sound scores for the video production industry.
In 1997, John Ryan formed his company, Ryan Music Inc. (www.ryanmusic.com), to manage the music publishing, recording, and performance aspects of his music career. His original songs, copyrights, and musical compositions are all published under his ASCAP music publishing company, Ryanwood Music. John Ryan’s private recording studio is located in Melbourne, Florida, as well as his piano bar (www.FloridaKeysPianoBar.com).
In 2003, John Ryan published a very well-received song that he wrote during the aftermath of 911, entitled, 'Never Forget'.
In 2005, John Ryan gained international exposure as a songwriter with the release of the album 'Words Alone, The Music and Lyrics of John Ryan'. Produced and recorded in London, the album features the music and lyrics to 17 original compositions written by Mr. Ryan. The songs were arranged and conducted by the world-renowned Pete Moore, and performed by the 32-piece Pete Moore Orchestra.
In 2008, John Ryan was hired by Panasonic Corporation to compose and perform a musical composition to accompany a video presentation for their sponsorship of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The song is entitled, ‘Go For the Gold’.
In 2010, John opened a piano bar in Melbourne Florida named, ‘Florida Keys Piano Bar’, featuring a sophisticated, yet relaxed, British West Indies theme and an elegant lounge area, the ‘Ernest Hemingway Library’.
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