Ray E. Cramer (born 28 June 1940) is an American band conductor.

Education

Cramer has degrees from

Western Illinois University Western Illinois University (WIU) is a public university in Macomb, Illinois. It was founded in 1899 as Western Illinois State Normal School. As the normal school grew, it became Western Illinois State Teachers College. History Western Illin ...

and

the University of Iowa The University of Iowa (UI, U of I, UIowa, or simply Iowa) is a public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized into 12 c ...

.Ray Cramer:
/ref> In December 1991, he received an Honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from his alma mater of

Career

Cramer began his career as the band director at Harlan High School in Harlan, Iowa. From 1968 to 1969 he served as Director of Bands at Parma Senior High School in the Cleveland area of Ohio. He joined the faculty at

Indiana University School of Music The Indiana University Jacobs School of Music in Bloomington, Indiana, is a music conservatory established in 1921. Until 2005, it was known as the Indiana University School of Music. It has more than 1,500 students, approximately half of whom ar ...

in the fall of 1969, and served as director of the

Indiana University Marching Hundred The Marching Hundred (or Hundred) is the marching band of Indiana University. The Marching Hundred is the product of tradition dating back to the organization of the first band at Indiana in 1896, which was founded to provide recreation for inter ...

from 1972 to 1982. In 1982, Cramer was appointed

Director of Bands A Director of Bands is the head figure of a marching or concert form of bands, a person who leads a musical ensemble. The Director, by history and tradition, must know all the concepts of music and must be able to teach all different kinds of instr ...

in the School of Music. He was a professor of music history, literature and wind conducting, retiring in 2005. He is the Emeritus Director of Bands in Indiana University. Cramer is a member of ABA, WASBE and IBA. He is affiliated with Phi Mu Alpha,

Kappa Kappa Psi Kappa Kappa Psi National Honorary Band Fraternity (, colloquially referred to as KKPsi), is a fraternity for college and university band members in the United States. It was founded on November 27, 1919, on Thanksgiving Day, at Oklahoma Agricult ...

Tau Beta Sigma Tau Beta Sigma Honorary Band Sorority, (, colloquially referred to as TBSigma or TBS) is a co-educational service sorority. The sorority, headquartered at the historic Stillwater Santa Fe Depot in Stillwater, Oklahoma, numbers over 3,800 active ...

Phi Kappa Delta Phi (; uppercase Φ, lowercase φ or ϕ; grc, ϕεῖ ''pheî'' ; Modern Greek: ''fi'' ) is the 21st letter of the Greek alphabet. In Archaic and Classical Greek (c. 9th century BC to 4th century BC), it represented an aspirated voic ...

and Phi Beta Mu. He was a guest conductor on the faculty of the Musashino Academy of Music in

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and List of cities in Japan, largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, ...

, Japan in the fall of 1990, the summer of 1992 and 1995. Cramer was also the guest conductor for the Indiana Bandmasters Association All-State Honor Band in 1983, 1995, 2001, and 2012.

Honors

Mr. Cramer is a recipient of the Student Alumni Council Senior Faculty Award (1983), The

Distinguished Service to Music Medal The Distinguished Service to Music Medal is an award presented by Kappa Kappa Psi, National Honorary Band Fraternity. It is awarded to people who have contributed to the advancement of the wind band "as a cultural, musical and educational medium. ...

(1988), the CIDA Director of the Year Award (1988), Outstanding Bandmaster Award (1988) and the Kappa Kappa Psi Bohumil Makovsky Memorial Award (1991). He is a past National President of the College Band Directors National Association and has served as president of the Indiana Bandmasters Association, and the Big Ten Band Directors Association.

References

External links

* 1940 births Living people 20th-century classical composers American male classical composers American classical composers Western Illinois University alumni University of Iowa alumni Distinguished Service to Music Medal recipients 20th-century American composers 20th-century American male musicians {{US-composer-20thC-stub