Saint Joseph's College of Maine is pleased to award Rick Charette the Honorary Degree of Doctor of Public Service at its Virtual Commencement Ceremony on Saturday, May 9, 2020, at 10 am. Charette will also deliver the Commencement address.
As a singer and songwriter, Rick Charette has been capturing the hearts and spirits of young and old alike with his delightful and inspiring children’s songs. His performances blend original contemporary pop music and lyrics with imaginative activities that generate all kinds of audience participation.
Rick graduated from the University of Southern Maine with degrees in Music Education and English. Elementary teachers across the country use his music in their classrooms to enhance and facilitate their language arts programs. He has been a featured speaker at the Northeast Whole Language Conference, a keynote speaker at the National Association for the Education of Young Children Conference in Washington, D.C. as well as other education conferences around the United States.
Rick travels throughout the U.S. and Canada performing at schools and concert halls. For large concert events he performs with The Bubblegum Band and has appeared in venues such as Riverfest in Little Rock, Arkansas; Boston Citywide Arts, Boston, Massachusetts; and Imagination Parade -a live concert radio broadcast in New York City. His music has been featured on Peter Pan and Walt Disney Records and has been cited in Entertainment Weekly and Billboard magazines. The television broadcast on NBC-TV affiliates in New England entitled “An Evening with Rick Charette” won the National IRIS Award for programming excellence. His music receives airplay on such radio networks as KTOO-FM, Juneau, Alaska, which syndicates its program “We Like Kids” on 35 public radio stations around the U.S. Concert excerpts of his songs are a regular feature on “The Learning Channel” (national cable).
Rick has released twelve albums, two children’s picture books and three live concert videos, which are distributed nationally and have sold well over a quarter million copies to date. In 2009, he recorded his third DVD of a live concert filmed at Deertrees Theater in Harrison, Maine, in which several new songs were debuted, in addition to a new version of his timeless classic “I Love Mud”. His 12th album “Seven Ate Nine!” (a collection of new original songs) was released in June 2016.
A life-long resident of Maine, Rick and his wife have three grown children, and he continues to enjoy performing and creating music for young children and families.
