Ryan Farrell (b.1982) is a composer, multi-instrumentalist, and visual artist from Cleveland, Ohio who began playing guitar at the age of five and the piano at fourteen. He started his own original rock band at eleven years old and started playing concerts throughout Northeast Ohio by the age of thirteen. In 2002, Ryan enrolled in the music composition program at Cleveland State University where he studied composition under Dr. Andrew Rindfleisch, and Dr. Greg D’Alessio, as well as piano with Grammy-Award winning pianist, Dr. Angelin Chang. In 2007, he was offered a chance to join the internationally renowned band Mushroomhead based out of Cleveland, Ohio. Ryan put his studies on hold, and from 2007-2019, toured extensively all over the world, as well as coauthoring, and recording two Billboard top 20 albums. One of those albums would debut at no. 1, and the other at No. 2 in the Hard Rock music genre category. When the music business was paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Ryan re-enrolled at Cleveland State University where he completed his bachelor’s degree in music composition in 2021. He immediately began work on his master’s degree at the same university where he graduated in the fall of 2022. Mr. Farrell has composed numerous works for the concert hall including solo instrumental, chamber, choral, electro-acoustic, and large ensemble music. Ryan plans to continue his career writing and performing with Mushroomhead, in addition to teaching music in the Cleveland area.

Mr. Farrell has always been involved in the visual arts and began his artistic journey at a very young age. His preferred medium was charcoal pencil drawings, along with ink pen sketches. In 2019, at the age of thirty-seven, Ryan began painting on canvas as a hobby to pass time while out on the road touring with Mushroomhead. Once his art began to sell and commissions started coming in, he decided to fully commit himself to the world of painting. Mr. Farrell’s styles include abstract fluid acrylic pours, as well as both oil, and acrylic paintings that are a hybrid style of fantasy, surreal, and classical.

Biography