Richard Wexler

Richard Michael Wexler of New York City, passed away peacefully on March 13, 2025, in New York City at the age of 80.

An extremely special and multi-talented person, Richard is probably most known for bringing classical music to the streets of New York City with his 'street concerts' during the late 1960s and 1970s. But his talents reached much further than that. In addition to being a classical violinist, Richard was an actor, writer, artist, poet, philosopher, public relations man, motivational consultant, creative money manager and strategic relationship builder. Not to mention, a warm and beautiful person.

Born in the Bronx on October 20, 1944, Richard started playing the violin at the age of 4, inspired by a little old man who would come to play in the courtyard of his apartment building. Tenants would throw coins wrapped in tissue paper out the window to the man playing below. To Richard this was magic, and he wanted to create the magic as well. He wanted to play the violin and, seeing his excitement and enthusiasm, his parents enrolled him in violin lessons.

At the age of 8, the family moved to Valley Stream, NY where he continued his violin studies, taking private lessons and also attending the Juilliard Prep Division, a weekend music program for students ages 8-18.

While in Valley Stream North HS, Richard developed a passion for astronomy and physics, which stayed with him throughout his life, as well as becoming obsessed with and involved in sports - bowling, baseball and football, but the violin was always first and foremost. He continued with private lessons and also attended the Meadowmount School of Music, a 7-week summer school in upstate New York for young violinists, cellists, violists, and pianists training for professional music careers.

After graduation, Richard was awarded a partial scholarship to The New England Conservatory of Music in Boston to study violin. However, he was disenchanted with school and left, though he continued with private lessons under concert-master, Richard Burgan, who was, at the time, a teacher in The New England Conservatory. Also interested in acting, he enrolled in Emerson College where he took drama classes and performed in multiple plays. After another year, he returned to New York with the desire to do two things - play the violin and act.

To help pay for his studies, Richard brought his talents to the street, and started playing his violin throughout Manhattan, mainly in the theatre district and, for a time, on the Staten Island Ferry. His mission was to bring his music and his brand of spontaneity to the people who could not afford the price of a concert hall ticket. The street became a special place for Richard. A true nonconformist, he gave up the idea of playing in concert halls as he did as a child and found joy in reaching people on a more personal level. In a world becoming increasingly homogenized, computerized, and de-humanized, he loved bringing 'life' back into the lives of everyday people with his music.

He always performed with his dog at his side, and became something of a New York landmark, a sidewalk 'celebrity', resulting in multiple and repeat articles about him in The New York Times, Daily News, New York Post, Village Voice, Broadway Playbills, even the Chicago Tribune. All this exposure led to guest appearances on talk shows, including Johnny Carson, Phil Donahue and Tom Snyder to name a few. He was featured in a book called 'Street People' and profiled as a 'local character' in a popular city guidebook, 'New York: Places and Pleasures'.

Intelligent, warm and engaging, Richard was also a frequent guest on radio talk shows, including Long John Nebel where, on occasion, he co-hosted with Candy Jones. He was on 'What's My Line', 'One in a Million', 'Helluva Town', and other popular shows of the time, and was featured in documentaries. A member of ASCAP, he also did voiceovers for commercials, wrote songs, and was signed on as a staff writer for Chappell Music. In 1973, he performed at the Grammy Nomination Presentation Dinner, where he sang a song, recited his poetry and played the violin.

In pursuit of his acting career, Richard received a years' scholarship to Stella Adler's acting class and continued to study under other well-known acting teachers, including Stanford Meisner. He acquired small parts in movies, including 'Good-bye Columbus', 'Last Embrace', and 'Werewolf of Washington', among others. He also worked as a member of the New York Shakespeare Festival, Tom O'Horgan's New Troupe touring company (formerly Cafe La Mama Repertory Troupe), and the People's Playhouse in Boston.

But in addition to music and acting. Richard loved connecting with people and studied psychology and sociology at The New School for Social Research. With so many ideas, and so much to offer, he decided he wanted to pass on to others what he had learned on the streets and started teaching courses called 'Chutzpah' and 'The Knack of Getting Rich' at The Learning Annex. He also wrote newsletters and articles, and ran growth and development groups to help people achieve specific goals and to realize their true potential.

His classes and groups were an experience in themselves, where one learned information, as well as insight into the very nature of being alive in the world. His groups attracted an eclectic mix of people and personalities as diverse as New York City itself. Through love, intuition and showmanship, Richard sought to draw out group members, and through interaction, have them discover that we are all the same, we all are one. He wanted each person to know that they were truly a 'spec of the spectacular' and to help them reclaim the part of themselves that they "once possessed back in their 'wildhood'". He clearly and accurately perceived who you were and helped you to see deeper levels of yourself. At the end of each class, he gave true compassionate, loving hugs. Richard's classes and counsel profoundly affected and changed so many lives.

He then moved on to the business and investment world, where he did media and investor relations for growing companies, as well as being a self-taught analyst and advisor on investment opportunities and strategies. He loved to help companies grow, just as he did with people, his slogan being 'I Get the Oak Tree Out of the Acorn'.

Richard was truly a unique and remarkable person, a true seeker with the ability to articulate profound knowledge, charismatic, genius, incredibly insightful, with a true gift for connecting with and understanding people. He was vibrant, intelligent, positive, a creative thinker, brilliantly perceptive, even psychic, and continued to work with and inspire people up to his passing. His warmth and love for humanity, and especially the individual, always came through. He saw more in you than you saw in yourself and inspired you to reach your full potential.

A fierce individualist, there seemed to be not enough outlets for Richard's ideas and creativity. Throughout his life, he also wrote a collection of beautiful and profound poetry and hundreds of his own personal philosophical nuggets of wisdom, which he called 'Fortune Crackers'.

A very special human being, Richard will be forever missed but his memory will live on in the hearts of all who knew and loved him.

Richard is survived by his Life Partner, Cindy Lynch, his loving niece, Melissa Golden, and numerous cousins. He is preceded in death by his parents, Sol Wexler and Mona Zackin Wexler, his sister, Debra Wexler Golden and brother-in-law, Dave Golden.