Tom Littman Concert Manager
2237 Alice Pratt Brown Hall
713-348-4933 littman@rice.edu
Unless otherwise noted, admission to all events is free and tickets are not required.
Programs are subject to change without notice. For information, call the Shepherd School Concert Office at 713-348-8000.
Flutist CATHERINE RAMIREZ, nationally acclaimed recitalist, chamber musician and teacher, has gained mounting admiration as a profound interpreter and spirited performer. Reviewed as "wonderful, an astonishing artist" (Brian Dickie, Chicago Opera Theatre), Ms. Ramirez has been praised for her "exciting, virtuosic, multi-hued and compelling" (Ransom Wilson, flutist) performances of both classical and contemporary music.
The 2006-2007 season features Ms. Ramirez on Chicago's Dame Myra Hess Concert Series, including a live broadcast on WFMT radio. Other appearances include encore performances of "Into Utter Forever," by Young Concert Artist composer Daniel Kellogg. Commissioned for Ms. Ramirez by philanthropist Andreas Waldburg-Wolfegg, this stirring meditation for flute and piano received its World Premiere in Chicago in 2006. Additionally, she performs with the El Paso Opera and El Paso Symphony Orchestra.
In recent seasons, Ms. Ramirez released her debut recital cd Transformation (CR4249). Reviewed as "a world class player tackling demanding repertoire that's off the beaten path" (TAXI), Ms. Ramirez won a special 2005 Ernst Krenek Society Grant to record the unique repertoire on this disk. She has appeared in concert at the Teatro de Giglio in Italy, Salt Lake City's Temple Square Performances, Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space and Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in New York. She has performed in music festivals world wide, including the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, the Vermont Mozart Festival, the Sankyo Academy in Florence (Italy), the Summer Academy of Music in Nice (France), and the International Flute Academy at the Domaine Forget (Quebec). Distinguished collaborations have included those with flutists Mary Stolper, Jim Walker and Carol Wincenc, and with members of the New York Chamber Soloists, CUBE Contemporary Ensemble, "L'Offerta Musicale" Chamber Orchestra of Venice (Italy), and the Vermeer String Quartet.
First-prize winner of the prestigious New York Flute Club National Competition, Ms. Ramirez made her New York recital debut in April 2000. A previous award winner of the National Arts Association, the Léni Fé Bland Foundation, the C.H. Colgin Memorial Fund, and the El Paso Symphony Guild Young Artist Competition, she advanced to the finals of the 2006 Fulbright Competition, the 2005 Spanish National Ensemble competition, and the 2003 Contemporary Record Society of Performing Arts Competition in Pennsylvania. Qualifying as the only American flutist to compete in the 2003 Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition in Austria, she won a grant from the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust for New Music.
A strong advocate of music education, Ms. Ramirez has taught music for 15 years in five U.S. states and in Italy. Acknowledged for her engaging teaching style, she recently appeared as a guest speaker at Brigham Young University (BYU), and as a guest artist/clinician at the University of Utah and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Formerly on the faculty of the DePaul University Community Music Division in Chicago, she joined the El Paso Conservatory last fall.
Born in Phoenix, Arizona, and raised in El Paso, Texas, Ms. Ramirez started playing the flute in public school band at age 12, beginning private study at age 18. She earned a BA in music from Occidental College in Los Angeles, an Honors Diploma from the Boccherini Music Institute in Italy, and Masters Degrees in flute performance from Queens College and the Yale University School of Music. Her major teachers have been Melissa Colgin-Abeln, Tara Helen O'Connor, Marzio Conti, Gary Woodward and Ransom Wilson. She will begin the Doctor of Musical Arts program this fall on full scholarship at Rice University. Catherine Ramirez is a Miyazawa Artist.
