Elmer Ramsey was a Conejo Valley dad many times over.
He and his wife, Elaine, raised five children in Thousand Oaks. But the conductor, trumpet player, composer and teacher was also a founding musical father. Ramsey lovingly led and nurtured a movement to bring classical, jazz and popularmusic to a region that lacked a strong cultural scene when Thousand Oaks became a city in 1964.
After more than 50 years of cultivating harmony in Ventura County as the founder and conductor of the Conejo Symphony Orchestra (a precursor to the New West Symphony) and Conejo Pops Orchestra, and as a beloved music professor at California Lutheran University, Ramsey died Feb. 9 at age 87 after a brief illness.
“It’s TOUGH — in all capital, bold letters — to create a community orchestra,” said Margaret Travers, of Newbury Park, executive director of the Ventura County Arts Council. “Early on, Elmer provided the orchestral musical background for our lives here, with these wonderful musicians who were also members of our community.”
Ramsey also taught many local musicians who played with him for decades and credit him for their professional careers.
“Elmer was my mentor as far as what it means to be a musical leader, and even more important, to be a humane, good person,” said Howard Sonstegard, of Thousand Oaks, a former student of Ramseyand principal trumpet player with the Conejo Symphony Orchestra. He’s now director of music at Ascension Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks.
Ramsey, whose first conducting endeavor involved leading a hillbilly band at age 10, was born in North Dakota, then moved to Kelso, Washington, and started playing trumpet at age 14. He graduated from the University of Portland, then came to Los Angeles in 1956 as a freelance musician, performing for 20th Century Fox and NBC studios, and with such stars as Nat King Cole and Jimmy Durante. He began teaching at California Lutheran University (then called California Lutheran College) in 1965, where he formed the California Lutheran College Community Symphony, made up of student and community musicians. It became the Conejo Symphony Orchestra.
The orchestra was dissolved in 1995, along with the west county-based Ventura County Symphony, when the New West Symphony was formed — a development that caused much consternation in the classical music community.
Ramsey also launched the Conejo Pops Orchestra, which, among other gigs, played popular Independence Day concerts for 44 years at Conejo Community Park. He also created the successful Oakleaf Music Festival, a weekend symphonic and jazz music event that often featured well-known musicians.
Under Ramsey’s direction, CLU’s choirs and orchestra performed at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles with guest artists including Gordon MacRae, Roger Williams, Florence Henderson and Marni Nixon, drawing attention to musical talent in the Conejo Valley that might otherwise have gone unnoticed by L.A. audiences.
“The university and the community kind of grew up together, and that included the growth of music,” said Chris Kimball, CLU president. “Ramsey was certainly one of the parents of Ventura County’s musical heritage, and he did it with such kindness and grace.”
Ramsey retired as a CLU professor in 1992, but he wasn’t done with music. He helped lead efforts to develop the Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, which opened in 1994, and he continued conducting Conejo Pops concerts. In 2009, he received an honorary doctor of humane letters from CLU.
Wyant Morton, music professor and director of choral activities at California Lutheran University and choral director at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Thousand Oaks, said Ramsey’s “greatest strength, in my opinion, was his eclecticism. His love was conducting the great orchestral repertoire of the classical master composers, but he was equally at home conducting Broadway musicals, jazz standards and popular hits.”
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Musicians who studied under and played for Ramsey praise his kindness, professionalism, integrity and humility.
“The music business can be a little cutthroat; it’s not always so much about how good you play,” Sonstegard said. “But Elmer was always faithful to people and players who respected the jobs they were hired to do. He always called back players who did a good job. People wanted to play for Elmer.”
As a conductor, Sonstegard said, “for Elmer, it was all about the music. There wasn’t a drop of ego in his entire body. He just wanted the music to be done the right way.”
Bill Barrett, of Thousand Oaks, a professional trumpet player who started taking lessons from Ramsey at age 16, calls Ramsey “my second dad.”
Barrett, who performed in the Conejo Symphony and Conejo Pops and continues to teach, play and record professionally, said Ramsey’s humility humbled him.
“I thought I was a big shot and could play everything. But he told me, ‘When you get into a trumpet section, you go in, sit down, shut up and play your horn.’”
Sound advice from a maestro — and a dad.
A service is being planned for Ramsey at CLU.
