Program Staff
Matthew Ringer I Director of Choirs
Matthew Ringer is a professional singer, musician, educator, conductor, and clinician. Mr. Ringer has been teaching at Righetti High School since 2014. He currently teaches Concert Choir, Varsity Choir & Madrigals, Guitar and AVID. He received his Bachelor of Arts in Music in Choral Music Education from California State University Fullerton, graduating Cum Laude. His operatic roles include Don Curzio in Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro and Nanki-Poo in Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Mikado. Mr. Ringer was the tenor soloist in Haydn’s The Creation with Cal State Fullerton Chamber Choir and Orchestra, performing in the Franz Lizst Academy of Music Concert Hall in Budapest, Hungary. He is the former President of the ACDA Student Chapter at Cal State Fullerton, as well as Assistant Conductor of the CSUF Titan Men’s Chorus. Before teaching choir at Righetti, Matthew taught Vocal Music at Sunny Hills High School and held the Director of Music position at Fullerton First United Methodist Church in Fullerton, California. His mentors include Dr. Robert Istad, Dr. Christopher Peterson and John Alexander. Mr. Ringer has sung under the direction of such notable conductors such as John Maucieri of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, Carl St. Clair of Pacific Symphony, Keith Lockhart of the Boston Pops Orchestra, and John Williams with the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He has previously toured with Andrea Bocelli and was a frequent performer at the Hollywood Bowl. Mr. Ringer is a member of the American Choral Directors Association, the National Association for Music Education, Pi Kappa Lambda music honor society and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia social music fraternity of America.
David Alm I Collaborative Pianist
David Alm joins Righetti High School after having worked as an instructional assistant/piano accompanist for the Allan Hancock College Singers for fifteen years — under the direction of Drs. Ann Lucas and Nichole Dechaine. He also enjoys accompanying the Pioneer Valley High School Choir. Recently, he has served as choir director at Saint Benedict’s Episcopal Church in Los Osos and now serves as a pianist for the Santa Ynez Valley Presbyterian Church. He received his BA in piano performance/composition at UC Berkeley where he studied with pianists, Charles Fuery and Janet Guggenheim (Itzhak Perlman’s longtime accompanist), and the distinguished composers, Richard Felciano and Jorge Liderman. Before completing his MFA in Music Composition in 2017 from Vermont College of Fine Arts, his composition “Autumn’s Eve,” a piano trio based on Irish traditional tunes, was twice performed in Manhattan, NYC. In 2018, his wind quintet, “Oceano” was included in VCFA’s Ecstatic Beasts art exhibition in Montpelier, VT and, more locally, won a SLO New Times Music Award. David is most proud of his 30 year old son, August, who currently resides in San Francisco after serving as a Navy SeaBee. For fun, David often plays the bodhrán with the local folk musicians who specialize in Irish traditional music. Ireland happens to be his most regular travel destination — 6 trips so far!