Biography/EPK:

Proficiencies:  
Singer/Songwriter, Guitarist, Music Educator, Family Entertainer, Fitness Instructor, Voiceover Artist

Professional Activities, Honors, Grants and, Awards:
Miss Amy® is an energetic and engaging personality, singer/songwriter and studio musician who is versed in performance and composition, is an accredited music educator and fitness instructor, and is experienced in business management as well as parenting.Miss Amy & Her Big Kids Band™ is built of musicians who “have chops”. Ranging in experience from being opening acts for Marshall Tucker and Lovin' Spoonful to recording with Richie Cole and the late Grover Washington Jr., the band members have worked with various other mainstream jazz, funk and rock bands over the years.

Miss Amy grew up in Kansas and earned her BBA in Strategic Management from the University of North Texas. Throughout her life she has been writing music and singing with choirs, duos, rock bands, lounge acts, and has performed cabaret and theater. She enjoyed a career in social gerontology working as resident services coordinator, marketing specialist, and admissions director of notable nursing homes and continuing care retirement communities until the birth of her children. Her first-born experienced life-threatening medical problems at birth that required full-time care and the attention of an at-home parent (see "Why I Sing").

As her son grew stronger and became healthy, Miss Amy began playing libraries and coffeehouses for parents and young children, focusing her already developed music writing skills for this audience. In tandem, she trained as a certified music instructor with Kids’ MusicRound® and taught with them for over five years. Encouraged by her growing fan base, she began introducing her original music in performances and soon had composed her first CD, Underwater, which debuted in 2004, produced by Ionian Productions, Inc.. That same year Miss Amy recorded on the 2004 NAPPA Gold award winning DVD, International Baby 101 (English & Japanese) as the performing talent. The English & Spanish International Baby release garnered the 2005 Creative Child Excellence Award.

In addition to her music and business experience, Miss Amy has been in fitness instruction for over 20 years. She is accredited with AAAI-ISMA for Kids & Teen Fitness, Yoga I & II, Pilates, Tai-Chi, Primary Aerobics and Pre/Post Natal Fitness. She also trained as an Exercise Programming Specialist for Older Adults with Exercise Etc., Inc., she is the badge counselor for Physical Fitness with her local Boy Scouts of America, Inc. troop, and is a certified Youth/Adolescent Fitness Trainer with AFTA.Currently, as an Advocate for the President’s Challenge Program (a program of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports), Miss Amy encourages families to engage in physical activity and inspires young children to work toward earning the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award.
With her music, Miss Amy incorporates interactive fitness elements into each performance, appealing to the kinesthetic nature of young children, drawing the audience into participating as no other children’s musician on the landscape today can do.

“Miss Amy offers the perfect fusion of upbeat original music with the enthusiasm and experience of a trained fitness instructor…what parent’s have been searching for!” - Laurel Reid, Program Director of PEAC Health & Fitness

Significant Memberships/Affiliations:
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP)
National Academy of Recording Artists and Songwriters (NARAS)
Kids’ Music Round, LLC, Music Instructor
The Lawrenceville School Children’s Center, Music Educator
AAAI-ISMA (Yoga, Tai-Chi, Aerobics - Pre/Post Natal)  

Reviews/Press Releases:
“The title cut from Miss Amy's recording I Wanna Know How It Works is one of the catchiest children's songs released in the past few years …The full musical sound makes this latest offering by Miss Amy a winner.” - Rob Reid, American Library Association Celebrated Author, Children’s Programming Expert, Teacher, Librarian, Storyteller, November 2008

“The kids loved Miss Amy as much as she loved playing for them!” - Charles Bechtel, Executive Director Walt Whitman Arts Center, Camden, NJ, October 2008