Troy RAMOS

Troy Ramos was born in BC, Michigan in 1975 and graduated from Western Michigan University in 2004, where he studied piano with Silvia Roederer, voice with Monica Griffin and composition with Karen Olsen. He then moved to England, where he continued his compositional studies at the University of York and received an MA in Music in 2008. While at York he studied with the distinguished composer and John Cage-scholar William Brooks.

Recently, two of his works for piano solo, "Work in Four Parts" and "Oeuvres pour Piano: Nos. 1-3" (a premiere recording for this work), were recorded at Portland State University by pianist Matt Grossman.

His third song cycle, "Songs Three", was premiered at Curtiss Hall in the historic Fine Arts Building in Chicago on December 6, 2010. This concert received critical acclaim in the Chicago Classical Review.

In the summer and fall of 2010, two of his works were recorded in Portland, Oregon: "Early-Spring Earth" (July 2010) at Portland State University, and "Shades of Light" (November 2010) at the historic Old Church downtown.

In September of 2010 he was a featured composer by the ensemble Access Contemporary Music in Chicago. In July of 2010 his two works "Work in Four Parts" and "Two Pieces" were recorded for the first time, also in Chicago.

And in 2005 his work "Huron", from his Orchestral Set no. 1, was selected by ERM Media to appear on a future volume of its Masterworks of the New Era series, which features a recording by the Kiev Philharmonic under conductor Robert Ian Winstin.

He has been a member of the American Music Centre since 2003, and is also a member of Sound and Music, Access Contemporary Music of Chicago, the National Composers Alliance USA and Cascadia Composers.

Currently, Mr. Ramos is back on the west coast of the U.S. working on recordings and performances.

Besides working as a Yahoo! contributor, he also works as an Arts & Entertainment writer for Examiner.com.