About Omar
Omar Ramirez (1980-) is a Puerto Rican composer and trumpet player living in New Orleans, Louisiana. He holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Louisiana State University, a Master of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of New Orleans and a Bachelor of Music in Composition from Loyola University New Orleans.
Omar has studied improvisation and trumpet performance with Clyde Kerr, Jr., Michael Bucalo, Rex Richardson, Michael Pellera, Dr. Matthew Vangjel and Douglas Stone.
He has also studied music composition with Dr. James P. Walsh, Dr. Mara Gibson, Dr. Brian Nabors, Dr. Stephen David Beck and Mr. Roger Dickerson.
Academics
An active educator, Omar is currently instructor of applied trumpet at Xavier University of Louisiana and instructor of Music Theory at Loyola University New Orleans.
His compositions have been workshopped by the Atlantic Brass Quintet, the Ulysses Quartet, Variant 6, the Mostly Modern Orchestra and performed by the American Modern Ensemble at the Mostly Modern Festival 2024.
Experience
Omar is an active international trumpet player with many past performances at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. He has traveled extensively throughout the United States with Johnny Sketch and The Dirty Notes and was a recent guest soloist with the Louisiana State University Jazz Ensemble.
A New Orleans Jazz Museum Ambassador, he is a recent Fulbright-Comexus guest at the Sabor es Morelos Festival 2024 in Cuernavaca, Mexico, as well as a guest of the Centro Cultural Costarricense-Norteamericano in San Jose, Costa Rica as part of their Promising Young Artists program 2024. In January 2025, as a member of Arpa, he traveled to Havana, Cuba to perform at the 40th Festival Internacional Jazz Plaza. In October 2025, Omar will be traveling to Guatemala to perform at the Festival del Centro Histórico and the Second International Festival de Arpas.
Dissertation
Omar’s dissertation explores how cultural identity shapes music. It looks at the works of Latin-American composers Tania León and Roberto Sierra, showing how they draw on their Cuban and Puerto Rican roots to create contemporary compositions. It also examines the Puerto Rican tradition of bomba—its history, sound, and evolution—and uses that research as inspiration for an original piece, Bámbulas, which reimagines bomba in a modern ensemble setting.
MUSIC
MUSIC
Contact Omar
Eager to get in touch? Use this form to contact Omar!