Hammered Dulcimer
Inspired by the music of Rich Mullins, Amanda purchased her first hammered dulcimer in 2000. She taught herself to play by listening to recordings and learning tunes from Maggie Sansone books. Eventually, her hobby developed into performing with Sweet Betsy, a folk/Americana duo based in Dayton, OH. She has collaborated with fiddlers, cellists, guitarists, and harpists, as well as choirs at Wright State University.
Amanda is the 2017 National Hammered Dulcimer Champion and has performed at a variety of venues and festivals, including the Troy-Hayner Cultural Center (Troy, OH), the Walnut Valley Festival (Winfield, KS), the ODPC Funfest (Evart, MI), and the Northeast Louisiana Celtic Festival (West Monroe, LA) as a member of the group The Celtic Collective. Amanda performs in Louisiana frequently with her duo partner, percussionist Elizabeth Vidos, a.k.a. Lady Chops, who performed Off-Broadway with STOMP for 10 years.
Amanda has taught several of her arrangements and original pieces at the QuaranTUNE Dulcimer Festival, an international online festival started in 2020 by Russell Cook and Jess Dickinson. She is currently working on her debut album; the release date is set for Fall of 2023.
Amanda performs on a DulciForte by Master Works of Bennington, OK, as well as a Master Works Russell Cook Edition 16/15 CBWXR7.
Piano
Amanda Roberts has been a performing musician for more than 30 years. She is currently a collaborative pianist at Wright State University and Director of Music at Christ Our Hope Anglican Church in Fairborn, OH.
Amanda is a former collaborative pianist for the University of Louisiana at Monroe Department of Music, Bayou Masterworks Chorale, and Delta Youth Chorale. She is a composer and arranger for both piano and hammered dulcimer.
Amanda has been in high demand as a musician in the Dayton, OH area for a number of years, collaborating with faculty and students at several universities, as well as other professional musicians in the community. Once a member of Viva La Strings, she played for numerous weddings and corporate events. Amanda has also held collaborative piano posts with the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra Chorus under the direction of Dr. Hank Dahlman and the Dayton Chamber Singers and was a member of COCOA (Composers of Ohio Collaborative Organization for Acoustic Music) in Dayton. She has performed with colleagues at the National Flute Association, International Clarinet Association, and International Horn Society conventions.
Amanda has appeared as a percussionist and pianist with several orchestras along with the United States Air Force Band of Mid-America and Band of Flight. She has worked with Neal Gittleman, conductor of the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra, on works such as Leonard Bernstein’s Mass. Amanda served as the rehearsal pianist with Keith Lockhart for Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem and also performed the Vivaldi Gloria at Carnegie Hall with the Wright State University Chamber Chorale.
Amanda is a 1998 graduate of the University of Louisiana Monroe, where she studied percussion with Mr. Larry Anderson and earned a Bachelor’s in Percussion Performance. She pursued graduate studies in collaborative piano at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. Her principal piano teachers have been Dr. Linda Perry, Dr. Richard Seiler, Dr. Donald Cornell, and Dr. J. Hamilton Monroe.
