Born in New York City in July 1965, Sonya Cohen grew up in Putnam Valley, New York in a family with deep musical and artistic roots. She was the daughter of John Cohen, member of folk revival music group, The New Lost City Ramblers, and Penelope Seeger, a potter whose elder siblings were folk musicians Mike, Peggy, and Pete Seeger. She was the granddaughter of seminal musicologist Charles Seeger and the avant-garde composer Ruth Crawford Seeger. When she was only a few days old, her parents took her to the 1965 Newport Folk Festival where her Uncle Pete dedicated the evening's performance to her, saying she represented the hope for the future. Later that same historic night, "Dylan went electric."
Penny and John found an old farmhouse to fix up not far from Beacon, New York where Penny had lived with Pete and Toshi Seeger. The Cohens raised their children in a homesteading environment of music and projects of gardening, canning, baking, knitting, and sewing. After spending her high school years in London and at Oakwood, a Quaker boarding school in Poughkeepsie, New York, Sonya attended Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where she graduated with Honors in Art and Architecture.
At Wesleyan, Sonya explored the connections between feminist theory and art through book arts printmaking, and collage. She began to study and perform in a range of world music styles, along with her family tradition of folk Americana. She sang South Indian music, studying with T. Viswanathan, saying his "radiating warmth and love opened up the richest possibilities of life to me." In 1990, she traveled to Madras, India to continue her vocal studies of Carnatic music, overlapping with Matthew Allen, Julie Searles, Doug MacKenzie, and Eric Rosenthal, her musical colleagues and friends from Wesleyan.
She met her future husband Reid Cramer at Wesleyan, and together they moved to New York City where she worked in film and television with Children's Television Workshop and the Ginger Group. She also designed exhibitions for The Municipal Art Society of New York, and first began to work professionally as a graphic designer. Sonya continued her visual and book arts education with courses at Cooper Union, New School, and School for Visual Arts.
While in New York, she became the vocalist for a "chamber folk" music group called Last Forever, a project and collaboration with Dick Connette based on new and old songs out of the American tradition. In 1997, Last Forever released a self-titled album for Nonesuch Records, followed by Trainfare Home (2000). Later albums appeared on StorySound Records, including Acres of Diamonds (2015). New York Times music critic Stephen Holden called Last Forever one of the top ten albums of the year in 1997, writing that Sonya's "plain, twangy voice embodies the spirit of Mr. Connette's austere, beautifully constructed rural ballads. A haunting evocation of American prairie life in an era before television."
Sonya sang on two records of material from the songbooks of her grandmother Ruth Crawford Seeger—American Folksongs for Christmas (1989), and Animal Folksongs for Children (1992), both on Rounder Records. Sonya sang with her mother Penny, brother Rufus, Uncle Mike Seeger, Aunt Peggy Seeger, and her cousins Neill MacColl, Calum MacColl, Kitty MacColl, and Kim Seeger. Animal Folksongs is wonderful family music. Sonya designed the CD, her first of many projects packaging music, and loved singing and having a project with her mom Penny and extended family.
As a singer and musician, Sonya performed and recorded a range of original, folk, and world music. While in New York, she studied and performed Eastern European and Bulgarian singing with Ethel Raim. She sang with her family throughout her life. On the Grammy-winning Pete Seeger at 89 (2008), Sonya sings the translated Japanese poem that Pete set to music, "When I was Most Beautiful." The two performed this song together in March 2007 at the Library of Congress.
Besides signing with Last Forever and her family, Sonya sang with Elizabeth Mitchell and Daniel Littleton, Gary Lucas, Jeb Loy Nichols, and Suzzy and Maggie Roche. Dick Connette writes, "Truly a singer's singer, Sonya was admired by many of her contemporaries, including Jeff Buckley, Loudon Wainwright III, Geoff Muldar, Joe Boyd, Meredith Monk, and Kate and Anna McGarrigle. As far as it can be captured in her various recordings, the beautiful, sweet spirit of her song lives on."
With Reid, she moved to Austin, Texas in 1993 where she was a full-time graphic designer until the birth of their daughter Dio in January 1998. When her husband Reid took a job at the White House in 1998, the family moved to Takoma Park, Maryland. Their son Gabel was born in July 2000. Sonya added the name Cramer to her own for professional and personal reasons and, as Sonya Cohen Cramer, became an influential designer and art director.
For Smithsonian Folkways Records—a label founded by her godfather Moe Asch—Sonya designed over sixty CD and record packages of folk and world music, a number of which were nominated for Grammy Awards. Through Folkways, she worked with the Aga Khan Foundation, designing the "Music of Central Asia" series of recordings and companion book under the leadership of Ted Levin. Her design work on a series of Folkways Records with Elizabeth Mitchell was especially gratifying. As art director for The Sounding Joy: Christmas Songs In and Out of the Ruth Crawford Seeger Songbook (2013), Sonya helped more people connect to her grandmother's legacy through the beautiful music of Elizabeth Mitchell and Friends. A world-class collaborator, Sonya led a vibrant life filled with art making, music, and family. Her creative spirit and search for beauty led many people to wonderful places—most especially her husband and children.
Family Music Archives:
John Cohen
John Cohen Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
Penny Seeger
Pete Seeger
Mike Seeger
Peggy Seeger
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Charles Seeger
From left to right: Pete Seeger, Sonya Cohen Cramer, Penny Seeger, Calum MacColl, Kitty MacColl, Tao Rodríguez-Seeger, Neill MacColl, Barbara Seeger, Mike Seeger, and Peggy Seeger.
Additional Resources:
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Music Division, Library of Congress
Smithsonian Folkways
John Cohen
John Cohen Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.
Penny Seeger
Pete Seeger
Mike Seeger
Peggy Seeger
Ruth Crawford Seeger
Charles Seeger
Additional Resources:
American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
Music Division, Library of Congress
Smithsonian Folkways
Contact: reid.cramer@gmail.com