Dr. Rick Dimond is currently Professor of Music at Henderson State University, and the Principal Timpanist with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra. His musical experiences are quite varied, studying oboe, piano, stringed instruments, percussion, and accordion in his youth. Though mainly a Classical performer, Dimond has explored and performed commercial music, most often on keyboards in jazz and pop groups. His quintet, AcousticSin, has performed original jazz-rock fusion music at local jazz festivals and has recorded a CD of his own compositions titled Original Sin.
Rick Dimond earned Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctoral degrees from Indiana University in Percussion Performance, as well as the Performer’s Certificate, IU’s highest performance distinction, for his junior recital. Dimond also won the IU Concerto Competition, performing his transcription of the Khachaturian Violin Concerto on marimba with the IU Symphony Orchestra. Transcriptions have become a focus of Dimond, as his Doctoral Document, “Transcribing Solo Piano Literature to the Vibraphone,” aims at improving a rather scant solo vibraphone repertoire.
Rick has performed as marimba and timpani soloist with the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra, and as performed the Russell Peck Timpani Concerto with the Fort Smith Symphony, and the Symphony of Southeast Texas, when the work was being premiered around the country. He has performed with Roger Williams and with Henry Mancini’s touring orchestra as well.
His Henderson State jazz ensemble, now called NuFusion, is a perennial favorite at the Hot Springs Jazz Festival, and is rapidly developing a regional following. Dimond also has composed and performed a movie soundtrack, The Redemption, an independent film. Dimond also served as a summer Artist Faculty for the Asian Youth Orchestra. The Artist Faculty is comprised of performers and educators from the US and around the world, who work with the students in sectionals and instruct them privately. The Asian Youth Orchestra performed in China, Japan, Korea, Viet-Nam, Australia, the Philippines, and Taiwan during the summers of 2000 and 2001, the summers of Dr. Dimond’s work with this group. He has also been a member of the faculty of Arkansas Governor’s School since 2004