Ryan Everson
ASM Executive Director and Composer
My name is Ryan Everson. I am a Diocese of Phoenix seminarian, currently in my sixth year of training at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary in Denver, and I am the Executive Director of Angelico Sacred Music, which I started in the fall of 2024.
I was born and raised in the Las Vegas metro area. In sixth grade, I received my first
exposure to music when I signed up to play French horn in the Beginning Band at Bob
Miller Middle School. That year, my band director discovered and cultivated in me a
hidden musical talent that I had been unaware of.
Throughout my teenage years, my passion and dedication for classical music grew, and
I dreamed of playing French horn in movie soundtracks and famous symphony
orchestras. After success in some national auditions during high school, I received a
scholarship to study at the Arizona State University (ASU) Herberger Institute for Design
and the Arts with its renowned French horn pedagogue, Dr. John Ericson. I graduated
from ASU with a Bachelor of Music in 2019, and throughout my college career, I earned
some merits and awards, including the position of Co-Principal Horn of the ASU Wind &
Symphony Orchestras.
Thanks to the Lord’s grace and a vibrant ASU Newman Center Community, my college years gradually taught me that no musical honors could satisfy the deepest longings of my heart, and that my identity rested not in how good I sounded on stage or in the audition room, but in my relationship with our loving Creator, Who gave me my talent for music in the first place. Following a few years of spiritual searching in my early twenties, I eventually answered a different call I had been resisting, and I entered seminary for the Diocese of Phoenix in 2021.
During my second year of seminary, I felt a gentle but very persistent call in prayer to privately study sacred choral music composition, to focus my classical training in service of the Church. With the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and the help and encouragement of some dear friends, my seminary dorm room project became Angelico Sacred Music, a non-profit ministry founded with the focused mission of filling a gap in the sacred music landscape by creating an American patrimony of sacred musical art. Angelico’s compositions have been premiered by Catholic choirs including Cappella (University of Mary), The Catholic University of America Chamber Choir, and the University of Notre Dame Liturgical Choir.
