Meredith Ezinma Ramsay (B.M. 2012), known professionally as Ezinma, stood on the Kimball Recital Hall stage on April 1 looking out to an audience of approximately 300 Lincoln Public Schools high school orchestra students. It wasn’t that long ago that she was in their shoes, a Lincoln Southwest high school student who played the violin and performed with the Lincoln Youth Symphony.
“For those of you that want to go into music, it’s so important in this day and age with the social media and anyone being able to upload a song on Spotify, there’s a lot of noise,” she told the students. “It’s important to bring something different to the table. I didn’t come up here and play long sonatas for you. I kind of took an exit ramp and started to experiment, and it’s been super exciting. And that’s how I was able to lay the foundation for my career, which I’m still working on very much.”
Following her graduation from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Ezinma completed her master’s degree in violin performance at The New School in New York City. While there, she experimented and found her sound. In addition to performing at Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center and Symphony Space, she took production classes, studied jazz violin, joined a few bands and pushed past the limits of the classical genre.
Ezinma gained viral fame in 2017 by performing a violin cover of rapper Future’s hit “Mask Off.” In 2016, she was approached by Beyoncé to join her all-female band. She accompanied her at the end of her Formation World Tour, the release of “Lemonade” and performed alongside her at Coachella in 2018. She has performed with Stevie Wonder, Kendrick Lamar, Yo Yo Ma and others; and has composed for film, commercials and numerous recordings. Her first solo recording, “Classical Bae,” is available on Decca Records.
She returned to Lincoln to perform with Voices of Victory Gospel Choir for the 20th anniversary of the Meadowlark Music Festival on April 2. Ezinma won the Meadowlark Larsen Young Artist Competition when she was in high school.
Hixson-Lied Professor of Double Bass and Jazz Studies Hans Sturm said that as the Meadowlark Board was discussing what to do for their 20th anniversary, they thought about the challenges of Covid. Their 20th anniversary actually fell in 2021, but they were unable to celebrate until now.
“The idea came forward that we might consider the idea of a homecoming—that is inviting an artist who originally came from Lincoln, went out into the world, and became successful to come back home,” he said. “Meredith was a perfect choice for a number of reasons. When she was very young, she was one of the first winners of Meadowlark’s Young Artist Competition. She was born and grew up in Lincoln, played with the Lincoln Youth Symphony, won the Lincoln Symphony Young Artist competition, attended UNL, and had not performed in Lincoln since she left for graduate school in New York back in 2012.”
Her success was something Meadowlark wanted to celebrate.
“Ezinma is a force to be reckoned with,” Sturm said. “She is doing world-class work in many areas—as a violinist, she has recorded for Decca Records and continues to make special guest appearances with major artists touring the world. As a model, she is currently working with Estee Lauder on a new line of cosmetics. As a spokesperson, she has represented Lexus, Gucci and other luxury brands. As a film scorer, she worked on ‘Black Panther’ and is currently working on the new Marvel movie. Despite all this activity, she has found time to create a non-profit to help support young string students with instruments and lessons, and she gave several education outreach sessions during her Nebraska visit. The final concert attracted one of Meadowlark’s largest and most diverse crowds in recent years.”
Her advice to students in the Glenn Korff School of Music is to take risks.
“Take musical risks,” she said. “Maybe put something out on YouTube and just see what happens, or maybe put on a community concert featuring Filipino composers. Do something that feels maybe like something many people won’t get it. Because I think when you step outside that comfort zone and that sort of container of expectations, then you can really tap into something that might just take off.”
Much like Ezinma has done with her career.
“When I first started out making this music, it was horrible,” she said. “Like it was really dorky and sounded stupid. Nobody got it. But I continued to just take risks, exit ramp on this way, take a turn here, and make a U-turn there. I took time to figure out who it was that I wanted to be. And I couldn’t have done that if I stayed in the safe zone. You have to get uncomfortable to really do something awesome.”