Biography

Rami Vamos is a versatile musician known for his roles as a guitarist, composer, writer, and educator. With a diverse repertoire, from children’s theater to concert performances, he ignites a love for classical music across all demographics. Vamos was deeply engaged with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center for over two decades, contributing as a curriculum planner, writer, composer, and host for various concert series and educational initiatives. During his time with Lincoln Center, he created three educational series: Chamber Music Beginnings, Adventures in Chamber Music, and CMS Kids, a program developed for neuro-diverse audiences and their families.

Mr. Vamos began his career in education as a New York City Teaching Fellow. In 2005, he took a choral director and general music position in Pelham, NY. In 2023, Vamos received a grant from the Pelham Education Foundation to fund a Suzuki-inspired general music guitar curriculum in all four elementary schools. Over a thousand Pelham students started learning to play the guitar that year. The grant and program are the subject of a CBS Teen Kid News story. Click the link below to watch the full story:

CBS Teen Kids News story: Guitars in School

In addition to his work in Pelham, Vamos has held various positions at New York University and Concordia Conservatory in Bronxville, NY. Vamos has taught career development courses for classical musicians and coached chamber music at NYU since 2019. He has been on the guitar faculty of Concordia Conservatory since 2001, where he has served as string department chair and created a Suzuki Guitar program. He is registered with the SAA to teach Suzuki guitar through book six and teaches all Concordia guitar group classes. Rami has created dozens of programs for Concordia’s Adventures in Music concert series. In 2007, Concordia received a grant from the New York State Music Fund to commission from him a full-scale musical for kids between the ages of 7-18. The work was the subject of a CBS Teen Kid News Documentary which aired nationwide. Teen Kid News has covered several of his projects, including his original musical- “The Monster of Guitaristan,” which premiered at Concordia in the spring of 2016. He currently writes and hosts programs for Concordia’s UNIQUE Series, designed to use music to foster a host of meta-characteristics for neuro-diverse children.

Mr. Vamos has written several education articles for Soundboard Magazine and the New York Times Schoolbook Blog. CBS, Fox, and NPR have all featured his arrangements and original compositions on various news segments. In 2003, he received a Meet the Composer Grant, which brought him to The Raritan River Concert Series. His work was premiered there by the Newman and Oltman Guitar duet and members of the Turtle Island String Quartet. In 1994, Vamos collaborated with guitarist Randal Avers on a set of guitar duets called “12 Silly Songs for 12 Silly Strings”. The work was published by Clear Note Productions in 2014. He has also collaborated with his wife, violinist Nurit Pacht, on a series of original compositions for violin and guitar, which they have performed in summer festivals and venues around the country.

Early in his career, Vamos invented the fictional character of Wolfgang Amadeus Schmutzinberry. Schmutzinberry looks exactly like Mozart- but has certain glaring holes in his musical training. Schmutzinberry is blissfully unaware of this and sets out at the beginning of each educational program to compose “the greatest masterpiece of all time”. With help from the audience, the musicians on stage, and a few great works by geniuses of the past- he can learn basic concepts like what a melody is. These programs are educational, funny, and good for children ages 4-100.

Vamos has earned degrees from Oberlin Conservatory, where he studied with Stephon Aron, The Yale School of Music, where he studied with Benjamin Verdery and received the Eliot Fisk Prize, and Queens College. He lives in New Rochelle, NY with his wife and their three children.