A recipient of numerous honors and scholarships, Ms. Ramirez was one of five musicians, out of 300, selected to represent the Rice University Shepherd School of Music in performance at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D. C. in March 2010.  Having made her New York recital debut in 2000, she has also appeared as a soloist and chamber musician at the Teatro del Giglio in Italy, Salt Lake City's Temple Square, Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space and Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall in New York.  The International Music Foundation recently featured Ms. Ramirez at the Chicago Cultural Center on the Dame Myra Hess Concert Series.  Her performances have been broadcast live on Chicago’s classical radio station WFMT, Rice University’s KTRU and Houston’s KUHF “Front Row” Program.

As a performer of new music, Ms. Ramirez won a grant from the Yvar Mikhashoff Trust to compete as the only American flutist in the 2003 Franz Schubert and Modern Music Competition in Austria.  In 2005, she garnered a special grant from the Ernst Krenek Society to record her debut recital CD Transformation (CR4249), released the following year.  Reviewed as "a world class player tackling demanding repertoire that's off the beaten path" (TAXI), Ms. Ramirez subsequently received a commissioning prize from Chicago philanthropist Andreas Waldburg-Wolfegg.  In 2006, she and pianist Kuang-Hao Huang premiered the resulting flute and piano work entitled Into Utter Forever by University of Colorado (Boulder) composer Daniel Kellogg.  Commemorating the fantastical events of the Resurrection, the work was applauded as “absolutely top class music making pushing the boundaries” (Brian Dickie, General Director of the Chicago Opera Theatre).  A 2010 Houston performance of the work with pianist Andrew Staupe received the following remarks:  “dramatic, captivating, stunning!”

Other highlights include chamber music collaborations with violist James Dunham, violinist Kenneth Goldsmith, bassoonist Benjamin Kamins, pianist Brian Connelly, composer Martin Amlin, and flutists Mary Stolper, Jim Walker, Carol Wincenc, Marzio Conti and Leone Buyse.  Additionally, Ms. Ramirez has performed with the MUSIQA New Music group at Zilka Hall and at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, the Norfolk Chamber Music Festival, 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.  Recent symphonic performances include those with the El Paso Opera and El Paso Symphony Orchestras, the Vermont Mozart Festival Orchestra, and the acclaimed Rice University Shepherd School Orchestras led by Larry Rachleff and Cristian Macelaru.  Distinguished performances as principal flutist include Mozart’s Don Giovanni with conductor Richard Bado, Lalo Schifrin’s Tangos Concertantes with violinist Cho-Liang Lin, and Strauss’ Four Last Songs with soprano Renée Fleming.

A strong advocate for music education, Ms. Ramirez served as a music panelist for the 2010 Hispanic Career and Education Day held at the George Brown Convention Center in Houston.  While in Houston, she also proposed, organized and presented a concert series of accessible Latin and South American chamber music for specific audiences of ‘at-risk’ youth and their families, for those recovering from the effects of addictions, and for children who do not have access to live concert music, particularly those with autism and other developmental challenges.  Ms. Ramirez has taught music in five U.S. states and in Italy.  Acknowledged for her engaging teaching style, she has appeared as a guest artist at the inaugural El Paso Flute Club Summer Session, as a guest speaker at Brigham Young University (BYU), and as a guest artist/clinician at New Mexico State University, University of Utah and the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP).  Formerly on the faculties of the DePaul University Community Music Division, the Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, Morehead Middle School and the El Paso Conservatory, among others, she recently taught sophomore aural skills and flute lessons at the Rice University Shepherd School of Music.  Beginning in September 2010, Ms. Ramirez will join the music faculty as Assistant Professor of Flute and Theory at St. Olaf College in Minnesota.

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.  Despite the late start, she earned a Bachelor of Arts degree 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 in New York and the Yale University School of Music.  She has just completed her residency in Houston for the Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Rice University.  Her major teachers include Melissa Colgin-Abeln, Gary Woodward, Marzio Conti, Tara Helen O'Connor, Ransom Wilson and Leone Buyse.

© 2010 Catherine Ramirez All rights reserved