Ralph Cato

Career

Cato is a former member of the cast of Riverdance and the Albert McNeil Jubilee Singers. He has been music director for churches in the Los Angeles, California area and teaches vocal studies at the University of California, Riverside and Los Angeles Valley College. Cato has performed with the Cologne Philharmonic, Germany, the Estonia National Symphony, Chicago Sinfonietta, Pacific Symphony, Long Beach Symphony, Stockton Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, The United States Marine Band, Symphony Silicon Valley, and others. He has performed as Amonasro in Aida, Scarpia in Tosca, Tonio in Pagliacci, Germont in La Traviata, and Figaro in the Barber of Seville. He has performed at the Montreux Jazz Festival (Switzerland) and the [[Playboy Jazz Festival] (Hollywood)]

Reception

The Daily Breeze described his musical theatre program with the Torrance Symphony as "warm" and "mellow". In 2014, he performed with Symphony Silicon Valley, performing an oratorio of Carmina Burana. Mercury News writer Richard Scheinin acknowledged Cato as being "charismatic" and having a "warmly rounded voice".

Personal life

Ralph Cato was born in New Orleans, Louisiana. He graduated from Walter Louis Cohen high school, and moved to Los Angeles to study music. In LA, he earned a Bachelor of Music degree from California State University, Northridge, and a Master of Music from the University of Southern California. He then moved to New York in 1994. After several years of traveling and performing abroad, Ralph returned to Los Angeles in 2000 and began to study for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, which he received from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2005. He is currently living in Los Angeles.