Biography

Combining his talents as a performer, educator, writer, and composer, Rami Vamos has produced a wide array of creative output, ranging from children’s musicals to chamber compositions. For the past ten years he has used these creations to share an appreciation of classical music with people of all ages and backgrounds.

As an educator he began his career as a New York City Teaching Fellow. He spent two years as head of the music program at PS 123 in South Ozone Park, Queens while earning his masters in music education at night. Since completing the fellowship he has held multiple positions simultaneously. He creates the curriculum and teaches all of the pre-k music classes in Mt. Vernon, NY. He teaches kindergarten and first grade music classes at Siwanoy and Colonial Schools in Pelham, NY, and has been on the guitar faculty of the Concordia Conservatory in Bronxville for ten years. In addition to his guitar instruction at Concordia, he creates curriculum for and runs a guitar camp for students age 6-14 each summer. He composes music and coaches for the school’s chamber music program, and he writes two to three musicals each year for their Musical Adventures For Children concert series. For the past two years Concordia has received a special grant to make use of his talent as an early childhood educator. Each week he teaches two classes at Fountains Nursing home in Tuckahoe, NY. The residents of the nursing home watch and participate as he teaches a class of pre-k students from a local nursery. This very special program allows him to bring the joy of music to the very young and very old at the same time. For the past three years he has also served as a teaching artist for the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. This allows him to visit city schools throughout New York and New Jersey to prepare students for various chamber music events that they attend throughout the year. He is currently in the process of writing his first guitar method book, which will include his own compositions and a recording of his students performing the works with him.

As a composer and arranger, Vamos has produced work of a wide range in style (Pop, Rag, Musical, Classical, Contemporary, etc). His compositions have been heard on CBS, Fox news, and NPR. Members of the Turtle Island String Quartet, St. Louis Symphony, and New York Philharmonic have performed his works. In 2003 he received a Meet The Composer Grant, which brought him to the Raritan River Concert series, where he had works premiered by the Newman and Oltman Guitar duet. The group regularly performs his music. His collection of guitar duets

(12 Silly Songs For 12 Silly Strings, co/composed with guitarist Randal Avers) is performed regularly at guitar festivals around the country. He has written and performed his fourteen children’s musicals all throughout New York public schools and libraries and for festivals around the country. He makes regular appearances at the Bridgehampton Music Festival, Cooperstown Festival, Austin Classical Guitar Society workshops and Community Works retreats in Providence, RI. This past year Concordia Conservatory received a grant from the New York State Music Fund to commission a full scale musical for kids age 7-18. The work was a subject of a CBS Teen Kid News documentary, which aired nation wide. When he finds time Vamos enjoys performing with his rock band Sportcoat.

As a classical guitarist Vamos has performed extensively throughout the United States. This last year Music in The Loft in Chicago commissioned a work by Ricardo Lorenz for him to perform with the Pacifica String Quartet. He is a founding member of the Sap Dream electric guitar quartet, which performed at the Norfolk Summer Music Festival, New York Guitar Festival and at Princeton and Yale Universities. Twice a month Rami does volunteer bedside performances at hospitals throughout New York City. He does this for the organization Musicians On Call, of which he has been a member since it’s inception in the year 2000. As a student he took the top prize in the ASTA junior guitar competition and was a finalist in several other competitions including the Rantucci Classical Guitar Competition and the Portland Classical Guitar Competition. He received his undergraduate degree in Guitar Performance at Oberlin Conservatory where he studied with Stephon Aron. He earned his masters degree in Guitar Performance under the tutelage of Benjamin Verdery at the Yale School of Music, where he was a Rossoff Scholar and the recipient of the Eliot Fisk Prize. He holds a Masters in music education from Queens College.