Rick Fox has been writing contemporary Christian music, musicals and
drama for
more than a quarter century.
He served several San Francisco Bay Area protestant
congregations as Minister of Music, Worship Leader and resident
technology guru prior to moving to Colorado. He is currently
serving Marilyn Hickey's Orchard Road Christian
Center in Greenwood Village, CO as Pianist, Organist and
Keyboardist for
Sunday services at 9 and 11 am and Wednesday evening worship
services, all
featuring the best of Contemporary Christian Praise & Worship music.
Rick is a native of Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he studied music composition at Oral Roberts University in the 70’s, under the tutelage of the late Maestro Franco Autori. His contemporaries at ORU included some famous names you may know: Kathy Lee Epstein (she later married Frank Gifford and worked with Regis) and renown evangelists Carlton Pearson and the late Billy Joe Daugherty.
While at ORU, Rick got to work with some big-name entertainers through his involvement with production of the Oral Roberts television specials. That influence led him to leave the school, short of graduation to pursue a career as a professional entertainer. During that time, he logged appearances nationwide with showbiz legends as diverse as Bob Hope, Red Skelton, Doc Severinsen, Barbara (“the Beaver’s” mom) Billingsley, June (“Don’t you dare call me ‘Lassie’s mom’!”) Lockhardt, Roy Clark, Kathy Lee Gifford, Paul (Pee Wee Herman) Rubins, Ray Price, Sammie Smith, Kenny Rogers, Tower Of Power and Asleep At The Wheel, just to name a few.
Eight years later, Rick went to work for Fred Davis' Tulsa advertising agency, writing and producing television and radio commercials, as well as writing, producing and performing client jingles. Agency partner, Jeff Nauser, was teaching a marketing course at TU at the time so, encouraged by Jeff, Rick returned to college to finish his undergraduate studies, shifting his emphasis to audio/video production and journalism, earning his BS in Communication from the University of Tulsa in 1982. Rick did his masters work a decade later while working as News Director at WGVU, the public television and radio stations affiliated with Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
Rick's career path is rich in diversity, with God preparing him every step of the way to perform the services FoxTrax offers today. Right out of college, Rick took a job as a sales engineer with a pro audio/video company that catered primarily to churches and large music/multi-purpose venues, furthering his education in acoustic design and the nuances of large-scale sound and video systems. He continued to produce jingles and commercial advertising for the ad agency and started FoxTrax MultiMedia as a freelance venture, expanding those horizons. One of his clients, a cable home shopping channel, recruited Rick as an on-air host, a job that later moved him to Dallas, and then into a job as a news reporter, anchor and, eventually, news director for KTEN Television in Denison, Texas, just north of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. An award-winning journalist, Rick went on to manage other broadcast news operations in Texas, Oklahoma and Michigan. He continued to service FoxTrax clients he picked up along the way.
Rick moved to the San Francisco Bay Area in April of 1999 to produce an album project for an aspiring songwriter and he liked the area so well, he stayed. He finished that project in June and went to work as Minister of Music and Worship Arts for the First Baptist Church of Richmond, CA. In July of 2000, Salem Communications tapped his expertise, hiring Rick as Director of Production for Golden Gate Broadcasting. Golden Gate Broadcasting is San Francisco's premier Christian broadcaster, operating KFAX AM 1100, AM 1220 KFSB and BridgeRadio FM 100.7 at the time, all in the Bay Area. Salem's revenues plummeted in the wake of the World Trade Center terrorist attacks and Golden Gate laid off nearly half of the staff, including Rick, setting the stage for expansion of FoxTrax MultiMedia.
Rick recently
finished composing a new collection of Contemporary Christian music, “Mission
Of Mercy". The tunes are God-given,
the majority originally written to underscore pastoral homiletic
themes. This recent body of work is an excellent example of one
aspect of the services Rick provides in his Ministerial Support
efforts at
FoxTrax
MultiMedia.
Rick has also proven himself "on the boards" as an actor and a director; his on-stage theatrical credits include portrayals of Professor Harold Hill in “The Music Man”, Tevye in “Fiddler On The Roof”, Sheridan Whiteside in “The Man Who Came To Dinner”, Herod in “Jesus Christ, Superstar” and Herr Zeller in "The Sound Of Music". His theatrical directing accomplishments include numerous local and regional theatrical productions. Additionally, Rick has produced and directed dozens of large-scale, Broadway style musical revues nationwide for SRO Productions. SRO stages "Follies", utilizing amateur and volunteer professional talent, as fund-raisers for non-profits such as hospitals, Boys & Girls Clubs, Junior League and Service League organizations.
Rick
is heavily involved in the community and has served on Boards Of
Directors for
Berkeley’s Center for the
Education of the
Infant Deaf (CEID) and Contra Costa
Musical
Theater (CCMT) in Walnut Creek. He
actively participated in producing classic Broadway musical
theater for presentation at the Dean
Lesher Regional Center for the Arts in Walnut Creek until his move
from the Bay Area.
In his "spare time", Rick works with church choirs and drama
groups (adult,
children and youth), writing, producing and directing Contemporary
Christian musical theater.