Biography
Bram Wayman is a graduate student at the Butler School of Music (University of Texas at Austin), earning a Master's Degree in composition and a performance certificate in choral conducting. He has studied both fields extensively since his undergraduate years; he holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music (intensive, with honors) from Yale University. Self-taught for years before studying composition formally, Bram's widely varied influences and organic beginnings have led him to write in many genres and forms, from chamber, choral, and symphonic music to musical theatre and incidental score for the stage and screen.
Currently, Bram is studying composition with Dan Welcher; past professors include Daniel Catán, Russell Pinkston, Kathryn Alexander, and Michael Klingbeil. As a part of the Shen Musical Theatre Composition Project, he has studied musical theatre composition with Andrew Gerle, Josh Rosenblum, and Joe Thalken, among others. At the University of Texas, his music has been performed on several CLUTCH concerts, student recitals, and independent new music concerts, as well as in several concerts by the Collegium Musicum. Yale's stages have presented his music through Yale College New Music, the Yale Glee Club, the Yale Glee Club Chamber Singers, the Dramat, IGIGI, NuMu: New Musicals at Yale, the Shen Musical Theatre Composition Project, and the Davenport College Pops Orchestra.
As a conductor, Bram has worked mostly in choral music, though his training began with studies in orchestral conducting. Currently, Bram is the director of the Collegium Musicum, the premiere extracurricular chorus at the University of Texas at Austin. The Collegium, which Bram founded in the fall of 2010, performs mainly early and new choral music; it holds the New Choral Music Initiative each spring, which supports the composition of new choral music by student composers at UT. Bram has completed a full-year independent study in conducting under John Wiles, and served as the Assistant Conductor for the University of Texas Men's Chorus from 2009 to 2011; he will serve as Assistant Conductor for the UT Women's Chorus in the spring of 2012. At Yale, Bram studied conducting with Jeffrey Douma and Toshi Shimada.
Bram was born in 1986 and has studied music from an early age. In addition to composing and conducting, he is also strongly interested in the theory, cognition, and sociology of music, all of which inform his work as a composer and conductor. He is an avid choral singer and a keyboardist skilled at improvisation and playing by ear. Among his other interests are hiking, photography, baking, and history.
Recognitions
- Member, Phi Kappa Phi honor society (University of Texas chapter), 2010–present
- 2008 Fenno Heath Award – The Fenno Heath Award was established in 2005 to encourage the composition of new Yale Songs by Yale student composers, and is named in honor of Fenno Heath, Yale Glee Club Conductor Emeritus and the composer of many immortal Yale Songs.
- 2008 Abraham Beekman Cox Prize – The [Yale College] Department of Music awards The Abraham Beekman Cox Prize to the most promising and gifted composer(s) in the junior class.
- 2008 Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award – Named for Joseph Lentilhon Seldon, B.A. 1949, the Joseph Lentilhon Selden Memorial Award honors juniors selected by the [Yale College] Council of Masters "whose verve, idealism and constructive interest in music and the humanities exemplify those qualities for which Joseph Lentilhon Selden is remembered." In recent years the award has gone to students who are especially notable for their contribution to the field of music.
- 2005–2006 Shen Prize – The Shen Prize, named for beneficiary Ted Shen, was awarded to students whose musical merit allowed them to take part in an extracurricular study of composition for the musical theatre. Due to joint student and faculty effort, of which Bram was a part during the 2005-2006 academic year, the Shen Musical Theatre Composition Project is now a permanent part of the Yale College Department of Music curriculum.