William Ramsay

William Ramsay studied music in Johannesburg and Los Angeles. He taught at the Federated Union of Black Arts in Johannesburg as well as at the California Institute of the Arts in Los Angeles.

He is the founder and was head of the worldmusic department at the Hochschujle für Musik Hanns Eisler from 1995 to 2005. Ramsay is also a prize winner of the Grimme-Award 1991, the Studio-Prize by the Berlin Senate 2004 and recipient of the Golden Kite 2004 in the category film score.

From 1999 to 2000 he was the artistic director of the Berlin based worldmusic festival Konzertsommer and from 2005 to 2008 he was working as musical director, composer and consultant for André Heller's multimedia project Afrika!Afrika! Since 2008 he is responsible for the music program at the Berlin International Literature Festival.