Mac Ritchey

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Once referred to as a "musical Swiss Army knife", multi-instrumentalist Mac Ritchey brings a diverse palette of sounds and skills to both performance stage and recording studio. Along with 30 years of composition and performance, he has also recorded and produced over 200 albums for clients, bands, and his own music through his recording studio "Possum Hall".

For the past 10 years, Mac's instrumental focus has been on the oud (also known as the "Arabic lute"). His other instruments include: guitar, bouzouki, çümbüs, saz, bass, drum kit & percussion, keyboards, and didjeridu. He has studied Turkish and Armenian music traditions extensively and was a student of the late Alan Shavarsh Bardezbanian, as well as studying with Brahim Fribgane (Hassan Hakmoun, Club d'Elf) and Mal Barsamian.

Ritchey is a prolific composer and a member of the music groups 35th Parallel, Esthema, and Asatronauts of Albania. He has toured the US over the past two decades with a variety of ensembles from rock to world fusion, and performed in Freiburg Germany at the Tamburi Mundi 2009 Frame Drum Festival with internationally acclaimed percussionist Ramesh Shotham.

As a music producer and audio engineer, his work has been met with great acclaim. Most notably, the full-length album release "Alluvia" (Evren Ozan) was the winner of The 2008 Native American Music Awards: Best Instrumental Album Of The Year and was on the Grammy entry list in two categories.

Other studio production work has reached audiences in many ways, such as MTV "The Real World", New Hampshire Public Radio, The National Holocaust Museum and their podcast "Voices On Anti-Semitism" (35th Parallel), a number of independent film soundtracks, and even the daytime soap opera "All My Children".

Mac currently lives in Carlisle MA and works tirelessly at keeping the deer from eating his vegetable garden.