MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

Biography

Richard Ainsworth Cummings is the eldest of five sons,
born to Ruby (née Campbell) and Richard Cummings Sr.
At the age of five years, he first was instructed in piano
by his grandmother, Maude Bascome Cummings Taylor.
After four years of lessons, he entered the Juilliard Preparatory School of Music
and continued in piano for four years under the Russian pianist, Anna Shenderoff.
In 1973, after majoring in music composition at the University of Detroit,
he began a professional music career and since has performed with such luminous artists as:

Vocalists – Jon Lucien, Harry Belafonte, Letta Mbulu, Dianne Reeves
Instrumentalists – Noel Pointer, Hugh Masekela, Wayne Shorter
Playwrights – Melvin Van Peebles, George C. Wolfe

and a further, eclectic host of wonderful artists and performers.