Rick Barrantes Agüero is the Principal Bassoon and President of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Chamber Orchestra and holds faculty positions at the Community Music Scholars Program at Temple University, The Music School of Delaware and The Philadelphia Orchestra All-City Fellowship. A first prize winner of the COFCAM Püchner Competition, he has played as a soloist with the New Jersey Chamber Orchestra, Delaware Youth Symphony Orchestra, Philadelphia Sinfonia, GGS Chamber Orchestra and Youth Orchestra of Guatemala.

Barrantes regularly appears as a guest bassoonist with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, APEX Ensemble, Symphony in C and York Symphony Orchestra. He has also previously played with the Lancaster Symphony Orchestra, Pennsylvania Philharmonic, Toronto Concert Orchestra, Niagara Symphony Orchestra and National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. Additionally, he appeared as principal bassoon with the Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (Switzerland), AIMS Festival Orchestra (Austria), Brevard Music Center Institute, Sewanee Summer Music Festival and Youth Orchestra of Central America.

Passionate about teaching young musicians, Barrantes previously served as bassoon teacher at the SiNEM (El Sistema) Costa Rica, School of Symphonic Music of Pérez Zeledón and ANC Young Music Camp in Panama City. He has also guest taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp, the University of Delaware, the University of the Pacific, the Guaranda International Music Festival (Ecuador) and the National Music Conservatory (Honduras).

Barrantes earned degrees from the National Music Institute of Costa Rica, the Glenn Gould School at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto and Temple University in Philadelphia. He is currently working on his doctor of musical arts at Temple University, majoring in bassoon performance and minoring in orchestral conducting. His main teachers include William Short, Daniel Matsukawa and Glenn Einschlag.