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.

  “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,.