Faculty Profiles

Suzanne Ramo
soprano

DMA - The University of Texas at Austin
MM - The University of Texas at Austin
BA - Whitworth University

A member of the School of Music faculty since 2018, Suzanne Ramo is lauded by the San Francisco Chronicle for an ease with coloratura that one hears “blazing forth brightly” as well as her “lyrical phrasing sweetly rendered”. Recent performances include Brahms’ Requiem with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, recitals in Italy and Uruguay, and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional del Paraguay. A frequent performer in the state of Texas, she has twice brought her crystalline soprano to Orff’s Carmina Burana with Ballet Austin, and returned to the Laredo Phil for the title role of Donizetti’s Rita and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. As Constance in Les dialogues des Carmélites with Austin Opera, she earned a nomination for an Austin Critics’ Table Award as best singer of the 2008-09 season. Declared “always a highlight of any Austin Opera production she joins” by the Austin American-Statesman, she has previously joined the company as Rosalinde in Die Fledermaus, Stella in Previn’s A Streetcar Named Desire, and Zerlina in Don Giovanni. She received a second nomination from the Austin Critics’ Table Awards for her performance in Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem with the Texas Choral Consort in the 2013-14 season. She reprised the role of Violetta in La traviata with Amarillo Opera, a performance which was broadcast on PBS. Other Panhandle performances include Beethoven’s 9th Symphony with Amarillo Symphony, and Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with Chamber Music Amarillo.

Operatic roles include Susanna in Le nozze di Figaro, Musetta in La bohème, Violetta in La traviata, Micaela in Carmen, Madame Mao in Adams’ Nixon in China; and Fiordiligi in Così fan tutte. With the San Francisco Opera, she sang the title role of The Ballad of Baby Doe, Der Königin der Nacht in Die Zauberflöte, Woglinde in both Das Rheingold and Götterdämmerung, and Der Waldvogel in Siegfried in addition to joining the company for its productions of Rigoletto, Falstaff, Der Rosenkavalier, and Semele. Also under the auspices of San Francisco Opera, she sang title role of La Calisto, Miss Wordsworth in Albert Herring, and Elvira in L’italiana in Algeri in California as well as Violetta in La traviata on national tour with the Western Opera Theater.

A prolific interpreter of oratorio repertoire, she has joined the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra under the baton of Nicholas McGegan for Beethoven’s Christus am Ölberge, Modesto Symphony for Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Stanford University as guest soloist for Mozart’s Mass in C minor, Carmina Burana with the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Panamá at the Alfredo Saint-Malo Music Festival, as well as the Strata Trio for Schubert’s Der Hirt auf dem Felsen at Concerts at the Point in Massachusetts. Especially sought after for concert performances in Texas, she has sung acclaimed performances of Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder and Dubois’ Seven Last Words of Christ with the Laredo Phil, Handel’s Messiah and Poulenc’s Gloria with the Austin Symphony Orchestra, Knoxville: Summer of 1915 with the Victoria Symphony, Brahms’ Ein deutsches Requiem with the Brazos Valley Symphony, Mozart’s Requiem with Musica Ecclesiae in Austin, and University of Texas Wind Ensemble, in addition to concerts of Broadway favorites with the San Antonio Symphony and Victoria Symphony.
In addition to performing, Dr. Ramo has been an Attaway Scholar at the Centenary College of Lousiana, where she presented her research on the Father-Daughter Relationship in Verdi’s Luisa Miller, Rigoletto and La traviata.

Dr. Ramo earned her Bachelor of Arts in Music from Whitworth University, and her Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Texas at Austin. She is a two-time participant with the Merola Opera Program and held a prestigious Adler Fellowship with the San Francisco Opera. Always seeking to enhance her performance and teaching skills, she completed Teacher Certification with OperaWorks in 2018. International teaching residencies include La Escuela Nacional de Arte Lírico in Uruguay, the Sol Mayor Festival Internacional de Música in Paraguay, and the Music Fest Perugia in Italy, where she returns yearly. Before joining Texas State, she was Assistant Professor of Voice and Director of Opera at West Texas A&M University.