About Ronnie
I was born in Brooklyn, New York, and raised on Long Island. It was there at age 14 that I began my obsession with playing the guitar. The guitar and music became my oasis in what one might describe as a “tumultuous adolescence.” In the summer of 1978 I moved to Portland, Oregon. I worked odd jobs, all the time honing my guitar skills, singing, writing, and studying music formally at different colleges and universities. I played in a rock band called The Van Goghs, as well as in two different jazz big bands. It was in the late 1980s that I fell deeply in love with Brazilian music, bought a classical (nylon string) guitar, and dove in headfirst. In the early ‘90s I formed Bossamba, a Brazilian-influenced group playing and recording mainly my own compositions. Brazilian music has been the foundation and inspiration for much of my own music to this day.