Ralph Schatzki has been a lawyer and a teacher of high school mathematics. Yet, before that, during and even after, he has identified himself through his singing.

In fact, even when he was pursuing other interests he never allowed singing to disappear from his life. In college he took studio voice lessons for three years. This was his first real opportunity to follow his heart and engage in music full-time, but he was eventually persuaded by well-meaning- yet ignorant- people that he would be better off with an academic degree. Similarly, while in law school- another endeavor he undertook in response to those who felt it would be better for him to have a real degree- he took private lessons, and also found the time to engage in a music festival in San Antonio. In fact, singing in it was more important to him than attending his own law school graduation- one at which his own father had agreed to come and speak as an honored guest!

After becoming a member of the Connecticut Bar he finally spent several years focusing primarily on his music. He attended the Hartt School of Music and performed many lead roles there. He met his wife onstage in La Boheme, had his collar pop off onstage in Madame Butterfly, and nearly caught on fire in The Rake's Progress. It was an exciting time. He was then engaged to participate in apprentice programs with the opera companies of Miami, Sarasota and Chautauqua - where he was awarded the Richard F. Gold Career Grant for Young Singers. By the time he and his family moved overseas to Thailand he had an impressive list of roles to his credit, including (Rossini's) Figaro, Schaunard, Junius, Sharpless, De Bretigny, Nick Shadow, Elder McLean, Marullo, and Monterone.

Once overseas, he took a job as a high school mathematics instructor. Of course, while there he and his wife also opened P and R Productions and Voice Studio, and he performed solos and leading roles with the biggest performance organizations in Bangkok.