Help Richard play again

Richard Tibbitts is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hello. My name is Richard Tibbitts. I’m pictured above, on the left, with my childhood friends.

For the past forty years, I have earned my living as a professional musician by teaching, performing, and recording. However, the pandemic and subsequent dental deterioration have kept me from working since 2020. My partner, Ramona, and I receive Social Security payments every month, as do millions of Americans, but our combined incomes are barely enough to meet our expenses these days.

The building we lived in for four years is going to be demolished, and all the tenants had to vacate the premises. We left the hotel in October and rented a room from a friend who was planning to move out of state at the beginning of the year. Since then we have been staying in a motel, but we’re running out of money.

Unfortunately, as a wind player, I cannot work again until my dental problems have been corrected. I am currently about halfway through a treatment program that will eventually result in my having partial dentures. However, that process won’t be completed for some time.

My background includes a degree in flute performance from California State University at Fullerton (B.M.), and another from the University of Michigan (M.M.). I play flute, obviously, and piccolo, whistles, and recorders as well; I also perform on percussion and keyboards and can sing a decent harmony part.

I have been a guest artist with the San Diego Symphony, and have appeared onstage as a musician with the San Diego Opera, the La Jolla Playhouse, Lamb’s Players Theater, and the San Diego Repertory Theater. I also worked as a costumed entertainer at Sea World and the San Diego Zoo for many years.

I have also offered private instruction intermittently since the beginning of my career and worked as a music aide in local school districts when I was getting established. Later on, for six years I was an adjunct member of the music department faculty at Southwestern College in Chula Vista, CA, where I assisted the students during lab hours with their assignments in the recording arts and electronic music classes.

My work may be heard on albums by New Age musician William Aura on the Higher Octave label, and on recordings with the Anglo-American ensemble Kick Up The Dust. I was also a staff musician at Studio West in San Diego, CA for almost twenty years.

But back in the present, I have an oral surgery appointment coming up in February, and will need a place where I can recuperate. Following that will be a series of appointments to make impressions of my teeth and fit the dentures. At that point, I should be able to return to making a living. But until then, I won’t be able to make much of anything.

In the meantime, please help us find a permanent residence! If you know of anybody with a room they’d be willing to rent to a couple of upstanding citizens, that would be great. Anything you can contribute would of course be appreciated.

Sincerely,

Richard

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PHOTOS

This is the little military band that marched by Pavarotti at the end of the second act of San Diego Opera's production of La Bohème in 1980.

L–R: Richard Tibbitts, piccolo; (unknown), first trumpet player; Jon Szanto, percussion; (unknown), second trumpet player; Paul Sundfor, piccolo.

With the Jackstraws during Summer Nights at the San Diego Zoo, 1994.

L–R

Playing piccolo at the 2019 Sea Shanty Festival on board the Star of India.

With the Electrocarpathians at the North Park Festival of the Arts, 2011.

With Raggle Taggle at the San Diego County Fair, 2019.

With me pirate mates on the Star of India, 2015.

With Bill Fleming at a Christmas performance in 2016.

This is the Renaissance Fantasy Band around 1985. I'm second from the right.

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AUDIO

"The South Wind," performed with the Brian Baynes Band and the San Diego Symphony as part of the St. Patrick's Day Pops Concert, in March 2001.

"Serenity," from William Aura's 1981 recording, Paradise.

"The Sans Day Carol," recorded at Studio West, San Diego, CA in 1998 and produced by Marti Amado.

"L'aria di Ruggiero," with Richard Tibbitts and Claire Rottembourg, recorders, and Christopher Cook, continuo, from a Pacific Camerata performance in St. Paul's Cathedral, San Diego, June 2003.

"Timeless I," from William Aura's 1981 recording, Timeless.

"Ellan Vannin," from the 2015 recording by Kick Up The Dust entitled Whisky and Strong Porter, featuring the low D whistle.

Vocals from the chorus of "The Jolly Beggarman," followed by the whistle tune "The Maid Behind the Bar," also from Whisky and Strong Porter.

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VIDEOS

I'm one of the coaches for a youth orchestra, All About Music San Diego, conducted by Mary Gerard. Toward the end of this clip, I play a flute passage from the overture to Rossini's opera, L'italiana in Algeri (The Italian Girl in Algiers), at a performance in January 2020.

With the Electrocarpathians at the North Park (San Diego) Arts Festival in 2011 performing Rumanian Volach by Abe Schwartz. A volach is an improvisation on a melody.