Betsy Schramm’s three song cycles on the poetry of e.e.cummings for soprano and chamber ensemble have been performed in New York and London. BBC Radio3 produced recordings and broadcast two of these cycles: and birds are wings (Brian Israel Prize) and while east deserves of dawn with performances by Jane Manning and Jane’s Minstrels. The third cycle, and leap into the ripe air, was premiered by the Naumberg Award-winning New Millennium ensemble and mezzo-soprano Mary Nessinger in New York City.
Upcoming performances include while east deserves of dawn in Oslo, Norway: Papillon, a chamber opera in NYC; and Alleluia and Hosanna in Boston. Recent performances were the NYC premiere of Satan Speaks with tenor Eric Blomquist and Opera Twenty-0ne, a 15-city tour of Arrays of Light by trumpeter, Mark Ponzo, and a sun will always sing with soprano, Peggy Kohler.
Betsy Schramm’s American Mosaic was premiered to critical acclaim by the Duluth Superior Symphony Orchestra with the Minnesota Ballet. Alice and the White Rabbit’s Opera, for narrator and chamber ensemble, was praised by the Boston Globe as "a highly professional undertaking, and a child who owned a CD of it would benefit from such musical and literary sophistication." Additional commissions include Sedna: Images of the Alaskan Eskimo, a Barlow Endowment commission, premiered by Boston Musica Viva; Q’eros, commissioned by Lontano/ London Arts Board, premiered by Lontano in London; Iridescent Dreams, premiered on Television Belgrade; Wings of the Wind, commissioned and premiered by the Music Fix; Arrays of Light (ITG Ist Prize) for trumpeter Mark Ponzo; The Quickening of a Summer’s Morn, commissioned and premiered by the Eastman Wind Ensemble; and Intimations for cellist Elizabeth Simkin premiered in NYC.
Betsy Schramm lived in London in 1990-1991 as the recipient of a Fulbright in Music Composition and studied at Cambridge University, while completing her Ph.D. from the Eastman School of Music. Additional prizes and fellowships for Betsy Schramm’s music include: first prize in the International Trumpet Guild Composition Contest for Arrays of Light; the Brian Israel Prize for and birds are wings; Artist-In-Residence at Harvestworks, Inc./Studio PASS with a 1993 Programming Residency; second prize in the International Trumpet Guild Brass Quintet Competition for Illusions of the Masque; and the Sernoffsky, Bernard Rogers, and McCurdy Prizes from the Eastman School of Music. Festival performances include the International Society of Music Educators 20th New Band Music Symposium, British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles, June in Buffalo, International Trumpet Guild, Bowling Green Music and Art Festival, International Trombone Association, Washington State Young Artists Tour, and Summit Brass. Betsy Schramm’s music has been performed throughout the US and Europe.
Betsy Schramm earned the Ph.D. in Composition at the Eastman School of Music where she taught composition and orchestration. She has studied with Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, and Warren Benson at Eastman and Alexander Goehr at Cambridge University.
Betsy Schramm
Reviews
"...The sounds and sights of American Mosaic, were as expansive, daring and unpredictable as the young United States must have been. War, work, birth and death were among the themes represented. Comparisons with Aaron Copland were inevitable. Copland used expansive, open sounds to capture America - just as Schramm did in this work. The DSSO performed excellently under Yong-Yan Hu. Original choreography by Allen Fields helped to portray the pain, joy and confusion of building America." Duluth News-Tribune.
"Your reviewer was very much impressed by Betsy Schramm’s Alice and the White Rabbit’s Opera, which fashioned ingredients from Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear into a smooth and funny narrative - delivered to perfection by Sue Ellen Kuzma - and showed a canny sense of when to make tunes, rhythms and instrumental colors call attention to themselves and when not. The younger part of the audience found itself hearkening to it. This was a highly shrewd and professional undertaking, and a child who owned a CD of it would benefit from having such musical and literary sophistication aimed in its direction. The performance was elegant and virtuosic." for Boston Musica Viva Family Concert, Richard Buell, The Boston Globe.
Educators 20th New Band Music Symposium, British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles, June in Buffalo, International Trumpet Guild, Bowling Green Music and Art Festival, International Trombone Association, Washington State Young Artists Tour, and Summit Brass.
Schramm earned the Ph.D. in Composition at the Eastman School of Music where she taught composition and orchestration. She has studied with Joseph Schwantner, Samuel Adler, and Warren Benson at Eastman and Alexander Goehr at Cambridge University.
Very much worth hearing was Betsy L. Schramm’s e.e. cummings settings, and birds are wings, which was full of purposeful, chimey, beguiling instrumental sounds that sometimes flung about like a pennant in the wind." Boston Musica Viva, Richard Buell, The Boston Globe.
"Levine conducted a superb performance of Betsy Schramm’s Songs for the Earth, for winds, strings, piano, and percussion. It opened with glittering flourishes colored by glockenspiel and vibraphone, and was built on gestures and short phrases in which the trumpet was prominent, nicely wrapped up with gossamer bowed vibes and tinkling piano. The second movement was more assertive, with percussive attacks and a heavily pulsed, rushing line, with the players chanting and striking small finger cymbals. The music had a visionary quality." Buffalo News.
"In three movements, it evokes the characteristic melodic shapes, rhythms, and harmonies of Eskimo folk music. The opening movement is a kind of perpetual motion punctuated by percussive accents. Throughout, the crash of waves and sea spray are almost palpable in this very attractive piece." for Sedna: Images of the Alaskan Eskimo, Ellen Pfeifer, The Boston Herald.
"Last night’s world premiere was Betsy Schramm’s Sedna: Images of the Alaskan Eskimo, a lively three-movement piece influenced by Eskimo scales, rhythmic shapes and folk tunes. The first movement rejoices in the energy of creation; the second is a lament for the disappearance of a culture; and the third is a juggling dance. This music is dodging and interesting." Richard Dyer, The Boston Globe.
"Betsy Schramm’s Peregrinations for solo clarinet was given a dynamically impressive performance by Pamela Helton. It is music of impressive lyricism. Wide intervals establish a consonant tone that balances the piece’s restless exploration." Thomas Putnam, Buffalo News.
"The use of little repeated motifs was almost baroque in inspiration, and made the fancies the more alluring; the second movement was jazzy and joyful." for Peregrinations, Scott Cantrell, Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.
"John Aley performed the 1989 ITG Composition Contest winning piece, Arrays of Light, by Betsy Schramm. This composition for unaccompanied trumpet is in three movements entitled Altair, Orion, and Algol. A very listenable piece, Schramm has captured the sense of outerspace through the use of angular intervals juxtaposed with floating chromatic passages. There are cup-muted passages which are very effective. Aley’s fine performance did great justice to this new piece." James Thompson, International Trumpet Guild Journal.