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Amanda Walker - clarinet concert artist, studio recording musician,
and teacher.
She is a strong advocate for music education. Her own education helped shape her into
the highly sought after musician and teacher she is today.
In Great Britain, at the age of 9 she picked up the treble recorder. Upon hearing the song
"Stranger on the Shore" played by Acker Bilk, she decided that she would take up the
clarinet. By 11, she knew she wanted to be a professional musician.
Amanda was a natural who pushed herself due to her love of the sound of the clarinet
and her strong desire to succeed. At 15, she started studying with John Reynolds. "He
was a very grueling teacher who pushed me and inspired me to learn and to be the best I
can possibly be".
Her teacher was a protege of Thea King, principal clarinetist with the English Chamber
Orchestra and Britain's leading clarinet teacher, who only chose one new student a year.
One year, it was Amanda's turn. " She was one of the geniuses of clarinet playing,"
Walker said. " You learned so much from her."
She hopes that will happen with her students, that they learn much from her experiences.
Every summer, she coaches at the Idyllwild School of the Arts Summer Program
for both junior high school, high school, and college divisions. Amanda states "The
Idyllwild program has people coming from all over the world to coach and perform
beautiful music in a natural idyllic setting."
She currently has 40 students privately, many of them selected to play in the All-State
Honor Orchestra and Honor Band, All-Southern Honors Band and the
Southern California Society of Bands and Orchestras, among other prestigious
student ensembles.
Amanda is passionate about many things including teaching and chamber music. Besides
her studio work, Amanda is a free-lance musician who has played with the Pacific
Symphony, Opera Pacific, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera,
Los Angeles Master Chorale, Long Beach Symphony and Santa Barbara
Symphony, and was principle clarinetist with the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra.
The former Briton originally came to the states as an exchange student from the
prestigious Royal College of Music in London to study with the gifted and prolific
Gary Gray, Professor of Clarinet at UCLA
and teacher.
She is a strong advocate for music education. Her own education helped shape her into
the highly sought after musician and teacher she is today.
In Great Britain, at the age of 9 she picked up the treble recorder. Upon hearing the song
"Stranger on the Shore" played by Acker Bilk, she decided that she would take up the
clarinet. By 11, she knew she wanted to be a professional musician.
Amanda was a natural who pushed herself due to her love of the sound of the clarinet
and her strong desire to succeed. At 15, she started studying with John Reynolds. "He
was a very grueling teacher who pushed me and inspired me to learn and to be the best I
can possibly be".
Her teacher was a protege of Thea King, principal clarinetist with the English Chamber
Orchestra and Britain's leading clarinet teacher, who only chose one new student a year.
One year, it was Amanda's turn. " She was one of the geniuses of clarinet playing,"
Walker said. " You learned so much from her."
She hopes that will happen with her students, that they learn much from her experiences.
Every summer, she coaches at the Idyllwild School of the Arts Summer Program
for both junior high school, high school, and college divisions. Amanda states "The
Idyllwild program has people coming from all over the world to coach and perform
beautiful music in a natural idyllic setting."
She currently has 40 students privately, many of them selected to play in the All-State
Honor Orchestra and Honor Band, All-Southern Honors Band and the
Southern California Society of Bands and Orchestras, among other prestigious
student ensembles.
Amanda is passionate about many things including teaching and chamber music. Besides
her studio work, Amanda is a free-lance musician who has played with the Pacific
Symphony, Opera Pacific, Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, Los Angeles Opera,
Los Angeles Master Chorale, Long Beach Symphony and Santa Barbara
Symphony, and was principle clarinetist with the Los Angeles Mozart Orchestra.
The former Briton originally came to the states as an exchange student from the
prestigious Royal College of Music in London to study with the gifted and prolific
Gary Gray, Professor of Clarinet at UCLA
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After receiving her diploma from RCM with honors, she returned to UCLA to get her
master of fine arts and become Mr Grays teaching assistant.
After graduating from UCLA she spent 2 more years studying at USC with Yehuda Gilad,
Michele Zukovsky, Mitchell Lurie, and David Howard.
Walker stared getting calls and became very busy. She joined the chamber trio, Viklarbo
- formed from the names of their instruments, violin, clarinet and the bow of the cello -
and performed all over the country. Amanda fell in love with America and the Southern
California weather. Being in demand helped too, as the aforementioned groups and
voluminous Hollywood studio work testify.
"I worked on pictures scored by Marc Shaiman - "City Slickers II" (her first American film),
"Down with Love", "George of the Jungle", "Patch Adams", "The American President" ,
and James Newton Howard - America's Sweethearts", most recently "Peter Pan". On
these films and more her clarinet, bass clarinet and both types of contabass clarinets can
be distinctly heard.
Amanda was selected by director Steven Spielburg to give him lessons on a new clarinet
gifted by composer John Williams so he could reaquire the skills he once had mastered
before. She has worked with Jerry Goldsmith on Disney's California Adventure, played at
celebrity weddings such as Brooke Shields and Andre Agassi, and rock band Bush lead
singer Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, and was standing by for the ill-fated
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez union. She recently played for Tori Spellings wedding
ceremony.
Teaching drives and excites Amanda, as a University of California Irvine clarinet
professor she sees the wind department going places.
"There's alot of potential in the Music Department at UC Irvine. We have a strong faculty
of instrumental teachers. The Symphony Orchestra has grown tremendously under the
directorship of Stephan Tucker. We have a cohesive collaborationamong the woodwnd
and brass faculty with people such as myself, bassonist Carol Edwards, who plays with the
Pacific Symphony, and French horn player Daniel Katzen, who's been with the Boston
Symphony for many years. We have a much stronger chamber music program than that
of UC Santa Barbara and could be in a position to challenge that of UCLA, which has been
around much longer. The faculty hired just in the last couple years is a younger
generation of musicians who have energy to want to create something new and exciting
at the school."
master of fine arts and become Mr Grays teaching assistant.
After graduating from UCLA she spent 2 more years studying at USC with Yehuda Gilad,
Michele Zukovsky, Mitchell Lurie, and David Howard.
Walker stared getting calls and became very busy. She joined the chamber trio, Viklarbo
- formed from the names of their instruments, violin, clarinet and the bow of the cello -
and performed all over the country. Amanda fell in love with America and the Southern
California weather. Being in demand helped too, as the aforementioned groups and
voluminous Hollywood studio work testify.
"I worked on pictures scored by Marc Shaiman - "City Slickers II" (her first American film),
"Down with Love", "George of the Jungle", "Patch Adams", "The American President" ,
and James Newton Howard - America's Sweethearts", most recently "Peter Pan". On
these films and more her clarinet, bass clarinet and both types of contabass clarinets can
be distinctly heard.
Amanda was selected by director Steven Spielburg to give him lessons on a new clarinet
gifted by composer John Williams so he could reaquire the skills he once had mastered
before. She has worked with Jerry Goldsmith on Disney's California Adventure, played at
celebrity weddings such as Brooke Shields and Andre Agassi, and rock band Bush lead
singer Gavin Rossdale and Gwen Stefani of No Doubt, and was standing by for the ill-fated
Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez union. She recently played for Tori Spellings wedding
ceremony.
Teaching drives and excites Amanda, as a University of California Irvine clarinet
professor she sees the wind department going places.
"There's alot of potential in the Music Department at UC Irvine. We have a strong faculty
of instrumental teachers. The Symphony Orchestra has grown tremendously under the
directorship of Stephan Tucker. We have a cohesive collaborationamong the woodwnd
and brass faculty with people such as myself, bassonist Carol Edwards, who plays with the
Pacific Symphony, and French horn player Daniel Katzen, who's been with the Boston
Symphony for many years. We have a much stronger chamber music program than that
of UC Santa Barbara and could be in a position to challenge that of UCLA, which has been
around much longer. The faculty hired just in the last couple years is a younger
generation of musicians who have energy to want to create something new and exciting
at the school."
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