BIO
Amanda is a multi-faceted percussionist from the Los Angeles area. She performs music ranging from orchestral and jazz to pop and world genres, and has shared the stage and recorded with many world-class musicians, including Michael Giacchino, Mike Portnoy, Stephen Perkins (Jane's Addiction), Andy Narell, Liam Teague, Ray Holman, eighth blackbird, Billy Sheehan, Victor Provost, Martin Chalifour, Christopher Washburne and SYOTOS, New Music Chicago, and Matthew Tembo.
Amanda frequently records and performs with Pan Rocks LA, a 40-member steel pan ensemble from the USA and Canada (directed by Tracy Thornton) that recorded the music of Rush in 2018, and a five-song EP and a video documentary in 2017. In 2016, she traveled to Trinidad and Tobago to perform with the PCS Nitrogen Silver Stars Steel Orchestra in Panorama, the world’s largest steel band competition. Amanda has also twice traveled to Brazil to study drumming and culture in Rio de Janeiro and Salvador, Bahia.
An active music educator, Amanda is the Director of Percussion at Santa Margarita Catholic High School - where she teaches Steel Band, Percussion, Handbells, AP Music Theory, and Jazz - and the Percussion Instructor at Orange Coast College. Additionally, she has given lessons, clinics, and masterclasses throughout Southern California. Her students have been awarded performance-based scholarships to study music at major universities, top ten DCI drum corps, and summer festivals nationwide.
Amanda received her Master of Music degree from Northern Illinois University, and her Bachelor of Music degree from the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach. Her teachers include Dr. Michael Carney, Dr. Dave Gerhart, Brad Dutz, Raynor Carroll, Robert Chappell, Liam Teague, Dr. Cliff Alexis, and Dr. Gregory Beyer.