Phillip Ramey (born September 12, 1939 in Elmhurst,

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

) is an American composer, pianist, and writer on music. He studied composition with the Russian-born composer

Alexander Tcherepnin Alexander Nikolayevich Tcherepnin (russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Черепни́н, link=no; 21 January 1899 – 29 September 1977) was a Russian-born composer and pianist. His father, Nikolai Tcherepnin (pupil of Nikol ...

from 1959 to 1962, first at the International Academy of Music in

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, then at

DePaul University DePaul University is a private university, private, Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded by the Congregation of the Mission, Vincentians in 1898, the university takes its name from the 17th-centu ...

in Chicago. He later studied composition with

Jack Beeson Jack Hamilton Beeson (July 15, 1921 – June 6, 2010) was an American composer. He was known particularly for his operas, the best known of which are ''Lizzie Borden'', ''Hello Out There!'', and ''The Sweet Bye and Bye''. Early life Born in Muncie ...

Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...

(1962–65). Ramey has had professional associations with

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later a conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as "the Dean of American Com ...

Samuel Barber Samuel Osmond Barber II (March 9, 1910 – January 23, 1981) was an American composer, pianist, conductor, baritone, and music educator, and one of the most celebrated composers of the 20th century. The music critic Donal Henahan said, "Proba ...

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassic ...

William Schuman William Howard Schuman (August 4, 1910February 15, 1992) was an American composer and arts administrator. Life Schuman was born into a Jewish family in Manhattan, New York City, son of Samuel and Rachel Schuman. He was named after the 27th U.S. ...

, David Diamond and

Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz; yi, וולאַדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ, group=n (November 5, 1989)Schonberg, 1992 was a Russian-born American classical pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all ...

. Thomson honored him with a musical portrait for piano titled "Phillip Ramey: Thinking Hard," and Copland dedicated two piano pieces to him: "Midsummer Nocturne" and "Proclamation." For many years, Ramey was a close friend and a neighbor of

Paul Bowles Paul Frederic Bowles (; December 30, 1910November 18, 1999) was an American expatriate composer, author, and translator. He became associated with the Moroccan city of Tangier, where he settled in 1947 and lived for 52 years to the end of his ...

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the cap ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...

, where he has summered regularly. In 2017, the

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second largest public library in the United States (behind the Library of Congress ...

acquired Ramey's archive of manuscripts, scores and recordings of his music, which will be catalogued and made available for scholarly research. Ramey is the composer of orchestral works, including three piano concertos, along with chamber music and many works for solo piano, among them ten sonatas. In 1993 his ''Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra'', commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to celebrate its 150th Anniversary, was premiered by that orchestra under

Leonard Slatkin Leonard Edward Slatkin (born September 1, 1944) is an American conductor, author and composer. Early life and education Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a Jewish musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His fat ...

, with Philip Myers as soloist. On Nov. 14, 1985, ''Proclamation for Orchestra'', Ramey's orchestration of Copland's ''Proclamation for Piano'', received an unusual bi-coastal premiere: by the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

under

Zubin Mehta Zubin Mehta (born 29 April 1936) is an Indian conductor of Western classical music. He is music director emeritus of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra (IPO) and conductor emeritus of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. Mehta's father was the foun ...

and the

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic, commonly referred to as the LA Phil, is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at th ...

conducted by

Erich Leinsdorf Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a ...

. (The

concert was telecast as "Aaron Copland's 85th Birthday," episode 61 of the ''

Live from Lincoln Center ''Live from Lincoln Center'' is a seventeen-time Emmy Award-winning series that has broadcast notable performances from the Lincoln Center in New York City on PBS since 1976. The program airs between six and nine times per season. Episodes of ''L ...

'' telecasts.) Ramey's music has been published by Boosey & Hawkes, G. Schirmer, C. F. Peters and Edward B. Marks, among other firms. Ramey is the author of several hundred liner notes and interviews with American composers, and served from 1977 to 1993 as the annotator and Program Editor for the

. He is also the author o
''Irving Fine: An American Composer in His Time''
which received the 2006

ASCAP The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) () is an American not-for-profit performance-rights organization (PRO) that collectively licenses the public performance rights of its members' musical works to venues, broadca ...

Deems Taylor Joseph Deems Taylor (December 22, 1885 – July 3, 1966) was an American music critic, composer, and promoter of classical music. Nat Benchley, co-editor of ''The Lost Algonquin Roundtable'', referred to him as "the dean of American music." Ear ...

Nicolas Slonimsky Nicolas Slonimsky ( – December 25, 1995), born Nikolai Leonidovich Slonimskiy (russian: Никола́й Леони́дович Сло́нимский), was a Russian-born American conductor, author, pianist, composer and lexicographer. B ...

Award for Outstanding Musical Biography. Ramey appeared in the 1998 documentar
''Let It Come Down: The Life of Paul Bowles''
and the 2000 documentar
''Night Waltz: The Music of Paul Bowles''
He is presently Vice-President Emeritus o

The Tcherepnin Society website
/ref>

Compositions

(Selected, with some titles linked to recorded performances archived at YouTube.com) *1959 - "Three Early Preludes for Piano" *1960-63 -
Suite for Piano
(revised 1988) *1960 -
Three Preludes for Solo Horn
*1960 - "Incantations for Piano" *1961 - "Piano Sonata No. 1" *1962 - "Sonata for Three Unaccompanied Timpani" *1962 - "Concert Suite for Piano and Small Orchestra" (revised, reorchestrated and expanded 1984 as
Concert Suite for Piano and Orchestra
) *1962 -
Cat Songs for Soprano, Flute and Piano
(text: T. S. Eliot) *1965 - "Seven, They Are Seven: Incantation for Bass-Baritone and Orchestra" (text: Konstantin Balmont) *1966 - "Diversions for Piano" *1966 - "Piano Sonata No. 2" *1966 - "Capriccio for Percussion" *1967 - "Epigrams for Piano, Book I" *1967 - "Orchestral Discourse" *1967 - "Night Music for Percussion" *1968 - "Piano Sonata No. 3" *1968 -
Harvard Bells, Soundpiece for Piano
*1968 - "Toccata Breva for Percussion" *1968 - "Commentaries for Flute and Piano" *1969-71 - "Piano Concerto No. 1" *1969-72 -
Piano Fantasy
*1971 -
Suite for Violin and Piano
*1972 -
Leningrad Rag (Mutations on Scott Joplin) for Piano
*1974 - "Concerto for Chamber Orchestra" *1976 - "Piano Concerto No. 2" *1977 -
Memorial (In Memoriam Alexander Tcherepnin) for Piano
*1977 -
Arabesque for Solo Flute
*1979 -
La Citadelle, Rhapsody for Oboe and Piano
*1980 - "A William Blake Trilogy for Soprano and Piano" *1980 - "Autumn Pastorale for Piano" *1981/85 -
Cossack Variations for Piano
*1981 - "Fanfare-Sonata for Solo Trumpet" *1982 -
Canzona for Piano
*1983 -
Echoes for Piano
*1982-86 - "Moroccan Songs to Words of Paul Bowles for High Voice and Piano" *1984 - "Phantasm for Flute and Violin (or Two Violins)" *1984 -
Concert Suite for Piano and Orchestra
*1985 -
Proclamation for Orchestra
(Orchestration of Aaron Copland'
Proclamation for Piano
" *1985 -
Capriccio (Improvisation on a Theme from Youth) for Piano
*1986 -
Toccata No. 1 for Piano
*1986 -
Epigrams for Piano, Book II
*1987-88 -
Piano Sonata No. 4
*1987-93 -
Concerto for Horn and String Orchestra
*1989 -
Piano Sonata No. 5 (For the Left Hand)
*1989 -
Tangier Nocturne for Piano
*1990 -
Toccata No. 2 for Piano
*1990 -
Burlesque-Paraphrase on a Theme of Stephen Foster for Piano
*1990 -
Cantus Arcanus (In Memoriam Aaron Copland) for Piano
*1991-94 - "Piano Concerto No. 3" *1991-2013 -
Twenty-two Tangier Portraits for Piano
*1992 - "Rhapsody for Solo Cello" *1992 -
Café of the Ghosts: Fantasy-Trio on a Moroccan Beggar's Song for Violin, Cello and Piano
*1993 -
Trio Concertant for Violin, Horn and Piano
*1993 - "Chromatic Waltz for Piano" *1994 -
Color Etudes for Piano
*1994 - "Praeludium for Five Horns" *1995 - "Gargoyles for Solo Horn" *1995 -
Elegy for Horn and Piano
*1996 - "Concertino for Four Horns, Timpani and Percussion" *1997 -
Sonata-Ballade for Two Horns and Piano
*1997 -
Dialogue for Two Horns
*1997 -
Phantoms (Ostinato Etude) for Piano
*1998 - "Sonata for Harpsichord" *1998 -
Effigies for Viola and Piano
*1998 - "Lyric Fragment for Flute and Harpsichord (or Piano)" *2001 - "Lament for Richard III for Piano" *2002 - "Color Etudes for Piano and Orchestra" (arranged from "Color Etudes for Piano") *2002 - "Orchestral Epigrams" *2003 - "Winter Nocturne for Piano" *2004 - "Ode for F.D.R. for Piano" *2007 - "Primitivo for Piano" *2007 - "J.F.K.: Oration for Speaker and Orchestra" (text from speeches of President John F. Kennedy) *2008 - "Piano Sonata No. 6 (Sonata-Fantasia)" *2008 - "Dream Preludes for Trumpet and Piano" *2008 - "Ballade for Clarinet and Horn" *2008 - "Blue Phantom for Piano" *2009 - "Djebel Bani (A Saharan Meditation) for Piano" *2009 - "Simon Songs: Six Poems for Baritone and Piano" (text: John Simon) *2009 - "Simon Songs: Suite for Baritone and Orchestra" (text: John Simon) *2010 - "Slavic Rhapsody (The Novgorod Kremlin at Night) for Piano" *2010 - "Bagatelle on "Dies Irae" for Piano" *2010-11 - "Piano Sonata No. 7" *2011 -
Bagatelle on "Panis Angelicus" for Piano
*2011 - "Manhattan Soundings for Piano" *2011-12 - "Piano Sonata No. 8" *2012 - "Demons of Barsoom (Homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs): Ballade for Trombone and Piano" *2012 - "Concerto for Trombone and String Orchestra, Harp and Percussion" *2012 - "Hurricane Etude for Piano" *2012 - "Bagatelle on Twelve Tones for Piano" *2013 - "Bagatelle with Thirds for Piano" *2013 - "Bagatelle Romantique (on Themes of Alexander Tcherepnin) for Piano" *2013 - "Night of the Djinns for Piccolo, Contrabassoon and Percussion" *2013 - "Piano Sonata No. 9 (Ballade)" *2014 - "Second Rhapsody for Oboe and Piano" *2014 -
Musings: Thirteen Pieces for Piano
*2014 - "Loup-garou: Caprice for Tuba and Percussion" *2014-15 -
Piano Sonata No. 10
*2015 -
Symphonic Song for String Orchestra
*2015 - "Dead End, An Existential Song for Baritone and Piano" (text by composer) *2016 - "Noir Nocturne for Piano" *2016 - "Two Duos for Violin and Horn" *2016 - "Concerto-Rhapsody for Cello and Orchestra" *2018 - "Lyric Duo for Violin and Horn" *2018-19 - "Concerto Episodes for Violin, Horn and Piano" *2019 - "Golgotha Prelude for Piano" *2019 - "Chromatic Poem for Piano" *2019 - "Nostalgic Variation on an Original Theme for Piano" *2019 - "Poem in Autumn for Oboe and Piano (or Oboe Solo)" *2020 - "Winter Daydream for Piano" *2020 - "Plague Prelude for Piano" *2020-21 - "Night Journey, Rhapsody for Piano" *2022 -"Cluster Palace: Soundpiece for Piano, with Optional Oboe Solos"

Recordings

*2019 - Piano Sonata No. 10, Barbara Nissman, pianist, CD. Three Oranges Recordings 3 OR-26. *2017
Phillip Ramey: Music for French Horn
Philip Myers, horn; Howard Wall, horn; Elmira Darvarova, violin; Virginia Perry Lamb, piano. Affetto Records (Naxos) CD AF1704. ''Trio Concertant'' for Violin, Horn and Piano; ''Elegy'' for Horn and Piano; ''Gargoyles'' for Solo Horn; ''Two Duos'' for Violin and Horn; ''Dialogue'' for Two Horns; ''Sonata-Ballade'' for Two Horns and Piano. (Booklet notes by the composer.) *2017 - ''Symphonic Song'' for String Orchestra; Ukrainian Festival Orchestra, Paul Mann, conductor, CD. Toccata Classics, TOCC 0370. *2013
Phillip Ramey Piano Music, Volume Four: 1959-2011
Stephen Gosling, pianist. CD. Toccata Classics, TOCC 0153: ''Incantations'', ''Cossack Variations'', ''Three Early Preludes'', ''Piano Sonata No. 3'', ''Epigrams Book Two'', ''Lament for Richard III'', ''Piano Sonata No. 7''. (Booklet notes by Benjamin Folkman and the composer.) *2011
Phillip Ramey Piano Music, Volume Three: 1960-2010
Stephen Gosling, pianist. CD. Toccata Classics, TOCC 0114: ''Suite'', ''Two Short Pieces'', ''Toccata Giocosa'', ''Slavic Rhapsody (The Novgorod Kremlin at Night)'', ''Burlesque-Paraphrase on a Theme of Stephen Foster'', ''Bagatelle on "Dies Irae"'', ''Djebel Bani (A Saharan Meditation)'', ''Blue Phantom'', ''Piano Sonata No. 6 (Sonata-Fantasia)''. (Booklet notes by Benjamin Folkman and the composer.) *2008
Phillip Ramey Piano Music, Volume Two: 1966-2007
Mirian Conti, pianist. CD. Toccata Classics, TOCC 0077: ''Diversions'', ''Epigrams Book One'', ''Leningrad Rag--Mutations on Scott Joplin'', ''Winter Nocturne'', ''Toccata No. 1'', ''Ode for F.D.R.'', ''Toccata No. 2'', ''Piano Sonata No. 4'', ''Primitivo''. (Booklet notes by Benjamin Folkman, Mirian Conti and the composer.) *2006
Phillip Ramey Piano Music, 1961-2003
Stephen Gosling, pianist. CD. Toccata Classics, TOCC 0029: ''Color Etudes'', ''Memorial--In Memoriam Alexander Tcherepnin'', ''Chromatic Waltz'', ''Piano Sonata No. 1'', ''Piano Sonata No. 2'', ''Piano Sonata No. 5--for the Left Hand'', ''Piano Fantasy'', ''Four Tangier Portraits'', ''Toccata No. 2''. (Booklet notes by Benjamin Folkman and the composer.) *1986
American Piano Music, Volume Two
Etcetera Records, KTC 1036. CD. Phillip Ramey: ''Canzona'', Bennett Lerner, pianist. *1984
American Piano Music
Etcetera Records, KTC 1019. CD. Phillip Ramey: ''Piano Fantasy'', Bennett Lerner, pianist. *1978 - Opus One, No. 37. LP
''Leningrad Rag''''Piano Fantasy''''Piano Sonata No. 4'' (Subsequently retitled ''Harvard Bells: Soundpiece)''
John Atkins, pianist. *1975 - Carlos, Wendy (né Walter). ''Walter Carlos, By Request''. LP. Columbia. Re-released a
''Wendy Carlos, By Request''
on enhanced CD in 2003 by East Side Digital (Minneapolis, Minnesota). Performed by Wendy Carlos, synthesizer; with Phillip Ramey, pianist (4th and 5th works: ''Dialogues'' for piano and two loudspeakers and ''Episodes'' for piano and electronic sounds). *1965 - Electronic Music. LP. Vox Turnabout. Carlos, Walter, ''Dialogues'' for piano and two loudspeakers with Phillip Ramey, pianist.

Books

*Ramey, Phillip
''Irving Fine: An American Composer in His Time''
Hillsdale, New York/Washington, D. C.: Pendragon Press, in association with the U. S. Library of Congress, 2005. *Ramey, Phillip. ''Sergei Prokofiev: The Modern Classicist''
Time-Life booklet
1975. *Ramey, Phillip. ''Rachmaninoff: His Life and Times''. Funk & Wagnalls booklet, 1975

References

External links

Interview with Phillip Ramey
about Irving Fine biography

*, WNCN-FM, 12-Sep-1980 *, WNCN-FM, 9-Sep-1983 * (performed by pianist Bennett Lerner) {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramey, Philip 1939 births Living people 20th-century classical composers American male classical composers American classical composers Musicians from Chicago American classical pianists Male classical pianists American male pianists Columbia University alumni DePaul University alumni People from Elmhurst, Illinois 20th-century American composers 20th-century American pianists Classical musicians from Illinois 21st-century classical pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American pianists