Amy Schumaker Bliss is a pioneering spirit: performer, educator, academic, conductor, author. - 4Barsrest
Dr. Amy Schumaker Bliss has built a career that combines her love for performing, teaching music, and writing. As a performer, Amy is always busy creating new projects. She released her album Couleurs en Mouvements in 2019 and she is featured on two of Atlantic Brass Band's albums (The Spirit of Christmas and Metropolis). She has been a featured soloist with Atlantic Brass Band, Rowan University's wind band, Rowan University's wind ensemble, Kent State University's wind ensemble, Athena Brass Band, Lancaster Allegro Symphony, Dublin Silver Brass Band, and San Fransisco Brass Band. She was a featured artist and host at the International Women's Brass Conference (IWBC) at Rowan University (2017) and a recitalist at the IWBC in Mito, Japan in 2024. As an adjudicator, Amy has served on panels for the North American Brass Band Association (youth section), Falcone Euphonium Young Artist Competition, The International Tuba Euphonium Association (ITEA) Young Artist Tuba and Euphonium Competition, and both the Midwestern and Southern regional ITEA artist euphonium competitions. She has also adjudicated composition competitions for ITEA and IWBC. She regularly plays solo euphonium in Dublin Silver Band just north of Columbus, Ohio and Athena Brass Band, an all-star British Brass Band featuring women brass and percussion players from around the world.
As a teacher, Amy has worked with about 20 universities for low brass masterclasses in person and online in the United States and around the world. Amy frequently works with brass bands as a clinician and educator as well. She has an international studio of in-person and online students on baritone, euphonium, trombone, tuba, and music theory. Amy conducts the Dublin Youth Brass Band, an ensemble that runs a summer session, fall workshop, and full winter/spring term. The youth brass band will be competing at the Dublin Festival of Brass and the North American Brass Band Championships for the first time in 2024 and the kids are collaborating on a season-long cultural exchange with two youth brass bands in Uganda (Brass for Children and Mbale Hills Youth Brass Band).
Amy's most recent publications include two works about British brass bands: a children's book called "Amy's Brass Band", and a paper on the history of the British brass band movement in North America. The paper, “The Brass Band Bridge and J. Perry Watson: A Link to the Beginning of the North American British Brass Band Movement," was published in the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) Journal and was praised as being “probably the best history of the establishment of the British-brass band movement in North America” (William Berz, editor WASBE Journal). The children's book, "Amy's Brass Band," is surpassing all expectations of popularity and introducing the genre to a whole new generation of future musicians. "Amy's Brass Band" is available worldwide through Amazon, and in the US through Walmart and Target online.
Amy attended Capital University Conservatory of Music in Columbus where she double majored in euphonium performance and music education, studying with Dr. Tom Zugger. She earned her master’s degree in euphonium performance studying with Steven Mead and David Thornton at the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, England) where she earned Honors with Distinction in Performance. In 2015, she graduated from Rutgers University as the school's first doctoral euphonium student, studying with Dr. Stephen Arthur Allen and mentored by Aaron VanderWeele. Amy lives just outside of Columbus, Ohio with her husband Adam and two sons.
As a teacher, Amy has worked with about 20 universities for low brass masterclasses in person and online in the United States and around the world. Amy frequently works with brass bands as a clinician and educator as well. She has an international studio of in-person and online students on baritone, euphonium, trombone, tuba, and music theory. Amy conducts the Dublin Youth Brass Band, an ensemble that runs a summer session, fall workshop, and full winter/spring term. The youth brass band will be competing at the Dublin Festival of Brass and the North American Brass Band Championships for the first time in 2024 and the kids are collaborating on a season-long cultural exchange with two youth brass bands in Uganda (Brass for Children and Mbale Hills Youth Brass Band).
Amy's most recent publications include two works about British brass bands: a children's book called "Amy's Brass Band", and a paper on the history of the British brass band movement in North America. The paper, “The Brass Band Bridge and J. Perry Watson: A Link to the Beginning of the North American British Brass Band Movement," was published in the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles (WASBE) Journal and was praised as being “probably the best history of the establishment of the British-brass band movement in North America” (William Berz, editor WASBE Journal). The children's book, "Amy's Brass Band," is surpassing all expectations of popularity and introducing the genre to a whole new generation of future musicians. "Amy's Brass Band" is available worldwide through Amazon, and in the US through Walmart and Target online.
Amy attended Capital University Conservatory of Music in Columbus where she double majored in euphonium performance and music education, studying with Dr. Tom Zugger. She earned her master’s degree in euphonium performance studying with Steven Mead and David Thornton at the Royal Northern College of Music (Manchester, England) where she earned Honors with Distinction in Performance. In 2015, she graduated from Rutgers University as the school's first doctoral euphonium student, studying with Dr. Stephen Arthur Allen and mentored by Aaron VanderWeele. Amy lives just outside of Columbus, Ohio with her husband Adam and two sons.