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Craig Jessop was a teenage country boy from the tiny Cache Valley town of Millville when he met William Ramsey, a music teacher who would change his life.
Jessop was competing as vocal soloist in the Utah State Fair Music Competition. Ramsey, who had just been hired as a music professor at Utah State University, was one of the judges.
After the competition, Ramsey sought out Jessop to compliment his talent and offer encouragement. "Young man, I think with lessons, you could do some things. Have you thought about taking lessons?" Jessop remembers Ramsey saying.
"Yes," was the reply. "But I don't know that my family could afford them."
"Craig, can you mow lawns?" Ramsey asked.
So Jessop mowed, and Ramsey taught. It was the beginning of a lifelong mentorship that changed Jessop's life.
Later, Ramsey helped Jessop get a music scholarship to Utah State University, where Jessop completed undergraduate studies and sang in Ramsey's choirs, absorbing his conducting style and approach to music. And Ramsey's connections helped Jessop as he earned a master's degree in music.
Jessop learned about more than music from his mentor. Lessons of grace and tolerance were passed along, too. Jessop describes Ramsey as "a wonderful Southern Baptist man" living in Mormon-dominated Logan. "I had never met a Baptist," Jessop recalls. "I found out he was just like us."
Ramsey was the frequent recipient of copies of the Book of Mormon proffered by adoring students, Jessop remembers. "I told him, 'It means they love and respect you so much that they are sharing with you the most precious thing they have.' He understood completely and was always generous and kind."
Ramsey was to become a legendary choral conductor at USU, then at Stanford University, as well as an important figure on the American choral music scene. Jessop became his protégé once again when he entered a doctoral program in choral music under Ramsey's tutelage.
During the storied career that followed, Jessop turned to Ramsey for advice time and time again. Those years included time as a baritone with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers and tenures as conductor of the U.S. Air Force Singing Sergeants and the world-famous Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
"Bill Ramsey has been my mentor, and one of my closest friends, to this day," Jessop said. "I have corresponded with him at least every month for years."
Jessop said that he learned during his years of singing with American choral music giant Robert Shaw, who trained Ramsey in conducting, how musical legacies are passed along.
"[Singing with Shaw] was like watching my grandfather," Jessop said. "There was so much of Shaw in Bill Ramsey. Every thing he did seemed so right, so natural and so much in the tradition I had been taught. I realized what an influence had been passed along to me. I felt instantly at home, musically and spiritually."
Jessop, now dean of USU's Caine College of the Arts, has come up with a way to honor Ramsey's influence in his life, and in the lives of the hundreds of USU students who sang in the USU Chorale under Ramsey's baton. (Those include Utah Festival Opera and Musical Theatre founder Michael Ballam, and many other distinguished musicians and teachers.)
He's inviting former members of Ramsey's USU Chorale back to the campus for a reunion that will include more than socializing.
Ramsay, now 75, retired, lives in Michigan and is returning to Utah for the event. And he will dust off his baton to conduct his one-time students in a concert of music they will remember from the time when Ramsey kindled a musical spark in each of them.
Sing loud, sing proud
Utah State University presents Utah State University Chorale Reunion: The Bill Ramsey Years. Members of the USU Chorale from the mid-1960s through mid-1970s are invited back to campus to sing once again under the baton of former USU music professor William Ramsey. Works of Carl Orff, Randall Thompson and Jester Hairston will be performed at a free concert.
When • Sunday, July 29, 7 p.m.
Where • USU's Kent Concert Hall, Logan.
Information • 435-797-2055 or visit http://www.usu.edu and search for "The Bill Ramsey Years."