Ronald Frangipane(1944-2020)
- Music Department
- Composer
- Soundtrack
Ron Frangipane was an Emmy Award-winning multi instrumentalist (best known for keyboards), producer, arranger, conductor and tenured Professor of Music at Monmouth University. His career started when he was hired to play piano and harpsichord both on and offstage in a Broadway show called The Freaking Out of Stephanie Blake; a show that closed in previews. The music composer for the show, the famous Jeff Barry took a liking to Ron's playing and asked him to audition for a new project he was involved in called The Archies. Ron became the keyboard player for The Archies and is present in all their hits, including Sugar Sugar and Jingle Jangle. At roughly this time, he began composing and arranging for film. He played keyboards on Barbarella and Midnight Cowboy, arranged Ned Kelly (1970), composed music for Jodorowsky's The Holy Mountain, The Bell Jar, and several others. Throughout the 1970s and early 1980's, Ron produced, arranged or played on countless records by Melanie, Grace Slick, Gene Simmons, Janis Ian, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Diana Ross, Jean Ritchie and many others. In the 1980's through the early 1990's Ron moved into music for television and radio, where his music was heard in many markets in several countries around the world. In 1997, Ron became a professor of music at Monmouth University and received his Master's Degree from Goddard College in Vermont. Ron virtually rebuilt Monmouth's music department, and composed music for a production of Othello, and tackled many extremely challenging pieces of music. Outside of school, Ron composed and recorded a handful of unreleased compositions. In 2003 he was tenured and continued to teach until 2012 when he was severely injured during hurricane Sandy. This ended Ron's career but he continued to make music for himself. He was a universally loved professor who's student grades were always and invariably high. He mentored many students who have gone on to great heights of their own. Ron passed away due to Covid-19 pneumonia in 2020.