Apprentice

• Multiple Reno Hip Hop Award winner• 6:01 AM, A Working Class Opera, written by Richie Panelli, Pan Pantoja, Sam O’Brien & Fred Crase Third-generation Reno native Richie Panelli performs under the name Apprentice. Co-founder of Conn Artist Clothing and Dorm Room Records, 34-year-old Panelli also holds a doctoral degree in Audiology.In the last decade, Apprentice has compiled a respectable body of musical work, including the release of... More

• Multiple Reno Hip Hop Award winner• 6:01 AM, A Working Class Opera, written by Richie Panelli, Pan Pantoja, Sam O’Brien & Fred Crase Third-generation Reno native Richie Panelli performs under the name Apprentice. Co-founder of Conn Artist Clothing and Dorm Room Records, 34-year-old Panelli also holds a doctoral degree in Audiology.In the last decade, Apprentice has compiled a respectable body of musical work, including the release of three full-length albums, Misery Loves an Audience, The Red Balloon and Rap Paper Scissors. In 2009, the Reno News and Review credited the latter as “arguably the best hip hop album to come out of Reno.”  His sophomore album, "The Red Balloon," was chosen as the Best Solo Hip Hop album of 2009. Panelli's latest release, "The Calm," a collaboration with Cody Rea and Sean Hill, was named one of the four best local albums of 2011 by the Reno Gazette-Journal.  “America,” his most recent video release of a song off of "The Calm," is receiving national attention In 2009, Panelli also wrote and co-produced “6:01 A.M: A Working Class Opera.”  With musical accompaniment by the Nevada Opera Orchestra, the play opened to a sold-out crowd of 1,300 at Reno’s Pioneer Theatre. (A National campaign for “6:01” is slated to begin in 2011). Apprentice donates most proceeds from his music to local organizations, which have in the past included The Evelyn Mount Foundation, Rainshadow Charter School, The Holland Project, and many other youth-based outreach programs in the Reno, Nevada area. Audiences at Apprentice shows include young, old, conservative, liberal, die-hard hip-hop fans, people who hate hip-hop music, and everything in between. Apprentice considers this cross-generational, cross-cultural appeal his biggest strength and most unique musical attribute.   Less