The music of Judith Lang Zaimont (b. 1945, Memphis, TN) is internationally acclaimed for its immediacy, dynamism and palpable emotion. Her 100+ works cover every genre and have been programmed around the globe by major ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Berlin and Czech Radio Orchestras, Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, Connecticut Opera, New York Virtuosi, Pro Arte Chamber Orchestras (New York and Boston), Women's Philharmonic, American Guild of Organists, England's Laudebus and Trinity Wind Ensemble, Harlem String Quartet, International Double Reed Society, the Manhattan and (Norway) Bergen Wind Quintets, Zagreb Saxophone Quartet, American Ragtime Ensemble and many others. Her music has served as repertoire for performance competitions in voice (Carnegie-Rockefeller American Music), piano (2001 Cliburn and 2003 San Antonio International), and conducting (Vahktang Jordania International). She is frequently commissioned; widely honored through composer prizes (including the Gottschalk International Competition First Prize: Gold Medal and International McCollin Competition First Prize) and awards (including a Guggenheim Fellowship, 2003 Aaron Copland Award, and 2005 Bush Foundation Fellowship); and two of her works were named to Century Lists: Doubles -1993 (oboe and piano: Chamber Music America), and Sonata - 1999 (Piano & Keyboard magazine). Her works are published and widely available on disc (Naxos, Koch Classical, Harmonia Mundi, MSR, Albany, Leonarda, Innova, Arkiv Music); her biography is found in standard reference works (e.g., New Grove's) and she is the subject both of individual chapters in specialist volumes and major articles in professional journals. After a teen-age career as concert pianist she completed college and graduate study in composition (City University of New York, Columbia University) and post-graduate study in orchestration in Paris with André Jolivet, leading to distinguished appointments over 35 years as educator (Peabody Conservatory, CUNY, Adelphi University and the University of Minnesota), and companion contributions as writer and editor (the Greenwood Press series, The Musical Woman: An International Perspective and essays on music continuing to appear in music journals online and in print). A fall 2008 essay for American Music Teacher magazine, "Embracing New Musics", has been named 2009 Article of the Year by the Music Teachers National Association (MTNA).

Ruth Elaine Schram wrote her first song at the age of twelve, and her first octavo was published twenty years later, in 1988. In 1992, she became a full-time composer and arranger and now has over 1,450 published works. Over twelve million copies of her songs have been purchased in their various venues, and she has been a recipient of the ASCAP Special Award each year since 1990. In addition to her choral music for church and school choirs, her songs appear on thirty albums (four of which have been Dove Award Finalists) and numerous children's videos, including sixteen songs on four gold videos, and four songs on one multi-platinum video. Her songs have also appeared on such diverse television shows as "The 700 Club" and HBO's acclaimed series "The Sopranos.".

Ruthie began piano and theory lessons at the age of five. She studied music at Lancaster Bible College and Millersville State College and taught Elementary Music in Pennsylvania for several years. She now lives in Birmingham, Alabama with her husband, Scott Schram, and they have two grown daughters, Crystie and Celsie.

Her current published works, with samples of audio excerpts and select pages of the scores, are listed on her web site: choralmusic.com.