Ron studied music and orchestration with Osvaldo Golijov at the College of the Holy Cross, where he received the Beethoven Award for outstanding composition. He continued on to get his MFA at the Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program at NYU and studied small ensemble composition with Conrad Cummings at The Juilliard School. A prolific writer, Ron has written everything from orchestral scores to pop ballads and his music has been used professionally in film, television and live theater.

On November 8, 2008, Ron and his brother, Dan Passaro, premiered their first feature length musical movie, "The Greatest Musical Ever Made (for under 10 grand)", in New York City. Ron provided the music to both the songs and the score, while Dan wrote, directed, edited and starred in the feature. The film will be submitted to festivals in 2009.

Recent television projects for Ron include the title music and score for a documentary on Nike's 2008 Junior Tour Masters. Ron provided over 30 cues for the program. Just prior to this assignment, Ron completed the opening titles track and additional music for the Tennis Channel's Signature Series documentary on Pete Sampras.

Other recent projects include an ad campaign for Lexus and the Tennis Channel for a Nintendo Wii Tournament held at Rockefeller Center, New York City. The 3 spots were showcased on the Lexus website as well as the Tennis Channel. Track 2 on this site's "Audio" page is the training montage spoof Ron wrote for a spot where a contestant is training in a gym for the Nintendo Wii Tennis Competition. Therefore the music is tongue in cheek and over the top.

Ron also completed the score for the award winning documentary, Ice Kings (http://www.icekingsthemovie.com). The film tells the amazing story of the Mount St. Charles high school hockey team in Rhode Island that won 26 consecutive state championships, a feat never before achieved by any American sports team. The movie was played to a full house at the Stadium Arts Center in Woonsocket, RI on November 16th 2007 before airing numerous times as a 2 hour special starting on Thanksgiving Day, 2007.