Composer/Pianist Rick Sparks Releases New Music EP for Challenging Times

What if you could just forget all your troubles while immersed instead in about a half hour of calming, relaxing music? Well-known "quiet music" artist, Rick Sparks, has just that recipe for tranquility. His new six track EP, "Devotion: Music for Healing & Peace" is available on broadcast and streaming services worldwide. The album's songs and arrangements were influenced, in part, by the "Pastoral Symphony" of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams. The new original songs on "Devotion" provide a calming refuge with their angelic choirs, peaceful piano, flute, and tranquil string arrangements.

A lifetime spent as a pianist, broadcaster, and music teacher has led Rick to create eleven quiet-music albums since 2014: "Devotion" (2024), "Angeline" (2024), "Nightsong" (2023), "Speak Peace" (2022), "Bella" (2021), "Christmas Night" (2020), "Hushabye" (2019), "Half Moon Bay" (2018), "Nightfall London" (2017), "Matilda's Flowers" (2016), and "Endless" (2014). In addition, Rick has released two compilation albums, "Dreams of Peace," in 2019 and "Sea of Serenity" in 2023.

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Sparks' musical influences have been many and diverse, from a grandfather who played Tennessee banjo clawhammer style, to becoming an FM-radio DJ in the 1970s and 80s. He went on later to program "The Cove," a leading New Age music radio station that airs on Live365.com.

Rick says, "I started pretty early with piano lessons when I was seven years old. A black 1957 Wurlitzer spinet my parents bought was my practice piano. It's the same model that Sun Studio in Memphis used to record Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, and Carl Perkins. I still have it and love it."

Rick got an early taste of public performance when he began playing piano in church as a teenager. "Mom was a church pianist and organist and Dad played guitar and sang in church, so my brothers and I got an early education in the spiritual power of music. There's no doubt those gospel songs helped lead me to faith in Christ when I was twelve."

Rick's teen years set the pattern for decades of service as a church pianist. Along the way, he earned a master's degree in music and accompanied legendary artists, including The 5th Dimension's Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis Jr., gospel great Alvin Slaughter of Brooklyn Tabernacle, and American Idol finalist Phil Stacey.

A visit to an antique store in 2007 set a new musical direction for Sparks. "One weekend, my wife and I were visiting Franklin, Tennessee. We walked into a little antique shop and the store owner was playing a CD of quiet New Age piano music. I remember thinking, 'I'd like to record something like that.'" Several months later, Rick released his 2007 album, "Christmas Love." With influences including iconic New Age artists George Winston and Jim Brickman, "Christmas Love" contained both traditional Christmas carols as well as newer classics.

While "Christmas Love" pointed the way for Rick musically, launching an online quiet-music station set his course as a recording musician. "The Cove" on Live365.com quickly found a receptive audience, climbing into the top 10 of 138 New Age stations on the Live365 platform in just a year. "In the process of getting "The Cove" on the air, I fell in love with the music of Chris Botti, Kevin Kern, Dominic Miller, Mark Baldwin, and many other wonderful artists. They inspired me to record "Endless" in 2014. As with "The Cove," the aim for my music is to 'replenish your spirit.'"

"Devotion" is available on all major streaming platforms.

Hear Now: https://ricksparks.hearnow.com/devotion

More information at https://ricksparksmusic.net

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