Rick Wilkins (musician)

Rick Herbert Richard Wilkins (born 1 February 1937) is a Canadian composer, conductor, and tenor saxophonist. He is primarily known for his work as an arranger. He has worked extensively for CBC and CTV arranging, rehearsing, and often conducting music for television and radio programs of pop-music and variety entertainments. He has arranged music for television specials featuring Julie Amato, Tommy Ambrose, Guido Basso, the Canadian Brass, Burton Cummings, Anne Murray, and Wayne and Shuster among others. In 1976-1977 he worked as a music director for CBS in Los Angeles, where among his projects was directing music for a number of specials starring the Jackson Five. Early life and education Wilkins was born and raised in Hamilton, Ontario. While still in his teens he worked as a saxophonist and arranger with Jack Ryan’s dance band in the mid-1950s in Hamilton. In 1957, he moved to Toronto where he studied privately with Gordon Delamont and at the Advanced School of Contemporary Music with Phil Nimmons. Career Wilkins performed with a number of dance bands in Toronto, including Benny Louis’s band. In 1960, he started arranging music for Jack Kane and his orchestra with the Canadian