CHARLES CHESSLER
JASON C. TRAMM
Jason C. Tramm always keeps his schedule jam-packed, and he wouldn’t have it any other way. The New Jersey-based conductor has no intention of slowing down.
Among his 2026-27 highlights are a Carnegie Hall world premiere, a production of Bellini’s “Norma” with his Seton Hall University students and a summer making music in a 7,000-seat auditorium in Ocean Grove.
Bringing people together through music is what keeps him going. “When you find interesting, collaborative partners who are talented and exciting, it is inspiring to make great music together,” he says. “I love tying together different populations and bringing great artists to new audiences. It’s exciting to make connections that speak to the heart of music, because music can bind us together in ways we never would have thought possible.”
One of those collaborations will take place on Nov. 12 at Carnegie Hall, where he will conduct The MidAtlantic Philharmonic Orchestra in a new orchestration of a long-lost Sergei Rachmaninoff score.
The concert — which will also feature masterworks by Beethoven, Gounod, Dvořák and Lehár, and new works by contemporary composers — is presented by Renaissance-21, a cultural education and performing arts company founded in London by Teodor Doré. Tramm will conduct the world premiere of Doré’s new orchestration of Rachmaninoff’s Suite in D minor. Doré, a pianist and composer, will perform two of his own compositions: “The Titans of Renaissance” (world premiere) and “La Suite Romana” (U.S. premiere).
The story behind Rachmaninoff’s Suite is as extraordinary as the work itself. In 1891, Rachmaninoff, then a 17-year-old student at The Moscow Conservatory, wrote his four-movement Suite for orchestra. The conservatory did not have all the instruments needed to perform it, so he mailed the score to Tchaikovsky, a composer he revered, asking for advice. The score, either mislaid or misdelivered, never arrived, and was considered lost for many years.
“It sat in a pile of papers and was only rediscovered in 2002 in a surviving solo piano version,” says Tramm. (Shortly after writing the orchestral version, Rachmaninoff wrote a solo piano reduction of it.)
TEODOR DORÉ
Now, 135 years later, it will premiere in Doré’s full orchestral version; Rachmaninoff’s great-granddaughter Alexandra Conus-Rachmaninoff was involved in putting the piece together with Doré. The work is remarkable because it shows a young composer experimenting with the expansive melodies, expressive harmonies and dramatic contrasts that later became his hallmarks.
“It’s gorgeous music,” says Tramm. “It’s pretty dramatic and Romantic, and very Russian, so if you like Rachmaninoff, it’s very representative of his style. Another great thing is that you are hearing a young composer who is going to become world famous. You can hear bits of his Second and Third piano concertos in there.”
Tramm finds Rachmaninoff an interesting composer because he bridged the Romantic and modern eras but kept true to his own style. “He was progressive in his own way because he stuck to his guns and stayed Romantic in a time of atonality and dissonance,” says Tramm, adding, with a laugh, “He was like, ‘Nope, I’m not changing who I am!’ ”
The concert will mark Renaissance-21’s Carnegie Hall debut. It will be Tramm’s third time conducting at the historic New York venue, though his first in Zankel Hall. His Carnegie Hall debut came in 2015 at Stern Auditorium with “A Prayer for Peace,” a program of Jewish, Christian and Muslim songs that featured The Seton Hall University Chorus, The MidAtlantic Opera Orchestra and Chorus, and guest soloists. He returned to Stern Auditorium in June for “America Celebrates 250,” a concert with The Arcadia Symphony celebrating American music and its roots in European, Jewish and African American traditions.
ROSALYN TRAMM
JASON TRAMM
Many of the musicians who played at the 2015 concert are still members of The MidAtlantic Philharmonic Orchestra, a professional ensemble founded by Tramm that performs opera, choral and pops repertoire about 20 to 30 times a year. “A lot of them are core players who I’ve been making music with for a long time,” Tramm says.
The orchestra is part of Tramm’s MidAtlantic Artistic Productions, which connects professional musicians with paid opportunities at universities, choirs, orchestras, theaters and other organizations. The company also handles contracting, touring and production in the Tri-state area, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
On Nov. 11, the day before Carnegie Hall, Tramm will lead his Seton Hall choral students in Vincenzo Bellini’s “Norma,” the 1831 bel canto opera with an Italian libretto by Felice Romani. The performance will be presented at The South Orange Performing Arts Center by The Seton Hall Classical Concert Series and The Charles and Joan Alberto Italian Studies Institute; the series, now in its 13th year, presents four to five concerts annually.
Tramm has been affiliated with Seton Hall since 2012 as an associate professor. He is the new chair of the Department of Communication Media and the Arts, which spans journalism, broadcasting, television production, music and theater. “It’s a real shift in my workload, but I really like helping people so it’s nice,” he says.
In the series, the students sing in the ensemble and in comprimario roles while the principal roles are sung by guest vocalists who have built international careers. The MidAtlantic Philharmonic Orchestra provides the accompaniment, giving students a chance to perform with professionals.
Tramm calls it an “experiential learning environment.” Many of his students have never seen an opera and know nothing about the art form. “When the professional singers come in, that’s when things really start to excite them and they become lifelong lovers of opera,” he says. “As a teacher, exposing people to a powerful new art form is rewarding, and it also keeps me young!”
“Norma” will be presented in a concert version with scenic projections. Tramm says the academic calendar and budget are too tight for a fully staged production with costumes, props and sets.
Bellini’s two-act tragedy is set in ancient Gaul. The high priestess Norma discovers that her Roman lover, Pollione, has fallen for another woman. Torn between love and duty, she ultimately sacrifices herself and faces death alongside him.
AMY SHOREMOUNT-OBRA
New Jersey-based soprano Amy Shoremount-Obra will make her role debut as Norma. Tramm has known her for a long time. “She has sung a lot of leading dramatic roles and is a very distinguished colleague,” he says.
Laura Zahn will sing the priestess Adalgisa, and Nathan Schafer will sing Pollione, the Roman proconsul. Henry Kim will sing Oroveso, Norma’s father and chief of the druids.
Tramm has conducted Norma’s famous “Casta Diva” aria in concert versions, but never the entire work. “You don’t get to do ‘Norma’ all that often; sometimes it’s nice to take a risk and do something different,” he says.
It is an opera he has always admired. Bellini, he says, “influenced Verdi and the composers who came after him. I find his writing interesting because I can hear a little of the transition from bel canto to the more Romantic opera traditions.”
Tramm also conducts for Light Opera of New Jersey, which stages musical theater, opera and operetta; he has been affiliated with the organization for a decade and has been executive director since 2021. Next up is Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors,” Dec. 5-6 at Morristown Unitarian Universalist Fellowship.
The one-act opera is about Amahl, a poor boy with limited mobility, and his mother, who welcome the Three Kings travelling to visit the Baby Jesus. When Amahl offers them his only treasured possession, his crutch, his leg is miraculously healed.
It will be the sixth time in the company’s 31-year history to stage the opera. “It’s such a great holiday tradition, so it’s pretty exciting to be able to bring it to a whole new generation of concertgoers,” Tramm says.
Light Opera of New Jersey will present “Amahl and the Night Visitors” in Morristown, Dec. 5-6.
The new production, directed by Susan Speidel, will use sets and videography. Kingston Nahm-Kora will sing the title role, and Carlyle Quinn will sing his mother. Joe Haughton, Thomas Donelan and Victor Clark sing the Three Kings. Alla Milchtein will conduct from the keyboard.
Tramm won’t be able to be there because he will be in Rochester, New York, for the New York State School Music Association 2026 Conference. He was asked to conduct the All-State Mixed Chorus and couldn’t turn it down. “It’s quite an honor in a conductor’s career to be asked to do it,” he says. “I was in the choir in 1992, so it feels like a very full-circle moment.”
He will also conduct one of his favorite composers, Mozart, in two productions this season: “The Marriage of Figaro” with LONJ in March at The Sieminski Theater in Basking Ridge; and “The Magic Flute” at Palm Springs Grand Opera in California, in April.
“I haven’t done Mozart in a while, so it will be nice to get back to my classical roots,” he says. “I find Mozart’s music the definition of elegance, of the perfection of the line. It is some of the hardest music to sing well, and also for the conductor, because the pacing has to be so seamless.”
Another genre he feels deeply connected to is light opera; Gilbert & Sullivan’s “H.M.S. Pinafore” was the first full opera he conducted, at 25. LONJ will stage Gilbert & Sullivan’s “Iolanthe” in October at The Sieminski Theater and he will conduct. ” ‘Iolanthe’ is a lovely one, with some Wagnerian influence that kind of pokes fun at Wagner,” he says. “And like all G&S, it has delightful music and a funny plot, and it’s topsy-turvy.”
The classical music season traditionally winds down in May and June, followed by a more relaxed summer festival season. Not for Tramm. He will spend his summer immersed in work at the Ocean Grove Camp Meeting Association, where he leads choral, orchestral and oratorio performances in the historic Great Auditorium.
The Great Auditorium in Ocean Grove.
He has held several roles there over the past 21 years, including artistic director of the Summer Stars Classical Concert Series. This year he will also be artist-in-residence, and The MidAtlantic Philharmonic Orchestra will be the summer resident orchestra.
He is now planning the lineup, which will include two pops concerts: one of film scores, and one of Americana. “My original idea was to do a Rodgers & Hammerstein night with a full orchestra and some Broadway singers,” he says. For the film scores, he is still deciding on the program. Last year’s concert featured a wide mix of music from composers such as John Williams and Danny Elfman.
“I love doing these pops concerts because it’s such grand music, and in that space with a full orchestra, it sounds beautiful,” Tramm says. “It’s a magnificent hall, and to fill it with music is quite an honor.”
The Great Auditorium, built in 1894, holds 7,000 seats and houses the famous Hope-Jones-Shaw pipe organ, which dates from 1907 and has more than 13,000 refurbished metal and wood pipes. Gordon Turk has served as resident organist since 1974.
Tramm also thrives on the logistics that go into building the programs. The Great Auditorium’s choir festival, an annual tradition for more than 70 years, has many moving parts; Tramm says his duties include overseeing travel plans for the guest conductors and composers who fly in, and ordering choral scores for 500 to 600 people.
He takes it all in stride. “I find as much joy in the work behind the scenes as I do in the work on the stage,” he says. “It’s just so rewarding to watch big projects come together.”
How exactly does he get it done? “I don’t sleep a lot,” he jokes. Sleep may be in short supply, but the music will not be.
For information on all of Tramm’s projects, visit jasontramm.net.
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