Biography
Graham Gordon Ramsay was born in Northridge , CA in 1962. Interested in music at an early age, he began to study clarinet when he was eight, and later studied piano. After private tutelage in theory and ear training with Dr. John Walker, he began formal studies in composition at Pleshakov-Kaneko Music Institute in Palo Alto, CA under Dr. Michael Andrews.
At 17, Graham Ramsay was accepted for study in the Young Artists Composition Program at Boston University Tanglewood Institute. He went on to undergraduate studies as a scholarship student at Boston University , where he studied composition with Robert Sirota, Joyce McKeel, David Del Tredici, and Theodore Antoniou. While at B.U. he also studied voice with Phyllis Hoffman and became an active performer in the Greater Boston area. In 1984 he studied composition at the Fountainebleau School in France with Narcis Bonet, and voice with Irene Joachim. Upon his return to the U.S., he continued his composition training in New York with Andrew Thomas.
Graham Ramsay leads an active musical life as both composer and performer, and is a founding member of the Boston-based Underground Composers. He has received commissions from numerous solo performers and ensembles including the Burgett Ensemble, the Seraphim Singers, American Classics, and King's Chapel, Boston. He has served as an Associate Board Member of LEAGUE-ISCM, Boston Chapter. He is a BMI composer.
Ramsay was the first composer to be commissioned by Julian Wachner for Boston University 's series of new music at Marsh Chapel. He is a winner of the first prize award in the 2003 Roger Wagner Contemporary Choral Composition Competition for his work “Three Psalms”. The first of these Psalms for chorus and solo violin was published in 2005 by Gentry Publications.
Characterization of the work
Influenced by his studies in classical vocal technique, opera, oratorio and art song literature, many of Ramsay's works are for the voice. These works include solo songs, song cycles grouped by poet or by thematically connected texts, choral works, pieces with narration, and works for solo voice with chamber ensemble. He honors the texts by making them singable, lyrical, and comprehensible. He does not use the text merely as a vehicle for the musical material, but melds line and lyric in a symbiotic manner. Ramsay's instrumental works also reflect a strong sense of line and lyricism. These compositions include works for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, orchestral pieces and dance suites, an incidental music for theatre.
Philosophy
The relationship between composer, performer and audience is the steady focus of Ramsay's work. Often working in collaboration with specific performers and ensembles, his work draws on their unique strengths. This process involves tailoring the work not only to suit the artists, but the musical occasion and performance venue for each project as well.
Recent and upcoming performances
