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About the Author: Ron Simpson

Ron Simpson describes himself as a music-industry generalist, having been at various times a studio musician, arranger, songwriter, publisher, studio owner, record producer, copyrights and licensing administrator, agent, professional manager, and label head.

Simpson began his career in California as a musician. His first band, in high school, included Joan Baez, and he later performed in local bands and theater orchestras backing top-level touring artists such as Johnny Mathis, Wayne Newton, Roy Clark, The Platters, The Diamonds, The Mills Brothers, Liberace, and Mel Tormé.

Musical theater was also an early interest: in the sixties Ron wrote book, music, and lyrics for "Johnny," a musical produced by the LDS Church in Finland, and served two seasons as orchestrator and one as musical director for Stanford's rousing "Gaieties!" revue shows. Later he composed "Along the Way" for Promised Valley Playhouse and "The Gathering" for the Triad Center Theater.

In between stretches of working, Simpson studied at Stanford, the Sibelius Academy of Music in Finland, and at Brigham Young University, where he completed a music degree.

In 1970 he co-founded The Sound Column Companies in Salt Lake City. Included in the original group were a music production company, two publishing companies, a record label, and a booking agency. A large studio was added in 1972. In a recent KSL TV news documentary, Simpson was identified as a pioneer in the development of Utah into an emerging music production and recording center.

At Sound Column, Simpson established himself by writing hundreds of musical commercials for radio and television. His national spots for Century 21 Real Estate and his Western-states spots for Sears and Kentucky Fried Chicken have been widely heard.

Simpson, who is listed in the ASCAP BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY and has been listed in three successive editions of MARQUIS WHO'S WHO IN ENTERTAINMENT, has composed for records, film, and musical theater, and, as a producer, claims chart singles, dramatic and corporate audio and video presentations, inspirational music and children's albums among his credits: over a million of the children's albums produced by Simpson in the seventies and eighties for Brite Music have been sold in the regional markets of the United States.

Ron Simpson has worked with the Music Department at Brigham Young University since 1984. Originally recruited to produce music for--and tour the world with--BYU's Young Ambassadors and Living Legends shows, he also teaches classes in songwriting, music production, and film scoring. He helped organize Tantara Records at BYU in 1993 and currently serves as the label's general manager. Simpson's guest editorials have appeared in BILLBOARD Magazine and in AMERICAN SONGWRITER Magazine. He is also the author of MASTERING THE MUSIC BUSINESS and a regular columnist for MERIDIAN, the online magazine for latter-day saints.

In 1992 and 1993, Simpson received music industry honors from BMI in Nashville for discovering, publishing, and promoting the hit song "Norma Jean Riley," which was a number-one record and career song for Arista recording artist "Diamond Rio." And then in 1997 and in 2001, Simpson received BMI's coveted "Million-air" awards. Also in 1997, Ron served as music producer for the LDS Church Sesquicentennial Spectacular staged in BYU's Cougar Stadium. For his work with Tantara Records he received BYU’s Creative Works Award in 1999, and an achievement award in 2001 from the College of Fine Arts and Communications at BYU.

In 2001, Simpson was asked to contact record labels on behalf of a group of four talented and value-based ex-BYU-Young Ambassadors. The result: a signing to Deseret Book’s Shadow Mountain Records. Newly named Jericho Road, the group’s first album is already on the shelf.

Ron Simpson is married to Maisa Tuominen, a Finnish pianist. They live in Orem, Utah and are the parents of three grown children.

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