Rich Chorne
Rich Chorné
Rich Chorné was raised in El Paso and graduated from UTEP with a BA in English in 1969. Early on, he started a dual life with his music and his career and educational activities. He began performing in his teens with many El Paso bands including a long stint with Blues legend, Long John Hunter. He teamed up with fellow Texan, Jay Boy Adams, and toured the country opening for ZZ Top in the early 70’s.
He moved to the East Coast with a band called Timberline. The band faltered and he stayed and settled in New Hope, PA, where he kept close to show business becoming a keyboard technician for Hall and Oates and a sound engineer for a road production of the Broadway play Oh! Calcutta.
It was time to settle down, so he followed a corporate career with Sony Corporation. He moved to New Jersey with Sony and held many positions including technical writer, training manger, facility manager, service manager, sales engineer, a national clinician for Sony audio products, and nationwide System Integration manager. He was constantly working in Manhattan. Sony then moved him to the Mid Atlantic area where he severed as Program Director for SMPTE (Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers) in Washington, DC and produced many technical programs throughout Washington to help usher in HDTV.
All along the way he kept playing and writing and won songwriter awards from the Washington Area Songwriters Association, he produced three CD’s and became part of the festival circuit in the Chesapeake area. He shared the stage with many notable artists including Chuck Berry’s Johnny Johnson (Johnny Be Good), Lou Ann Barton, Shemekia Copeland, Kenny Wayne Sheppard and many others on the circuit He was also active with the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA) where he was honored as a presenter of awards in 2007. He was also an endorser of G&L guitars (George and Leo Fender’s last guitar venture).
He is now retired but active performing and promoting music, film and the arts in the Ruidoso region as a board member of the Ruidoso Regional Council of the Arts.
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