About

“Vision and curiosity drive Amanda Ekery’s expression. [She] braids together musical styles, and draws inspiration from a range of sounds as well as historical research. Her music invites inquiry.”
-Stephanie Jones, Hot House Magazine

Vocalist and composer Amanda Ekery collaborates with everyone, literally. Historians, artists, engineers, bakers, you name it. Amanda works with all to create projects that invite others to explore and share their stories. She weaves her experience in improvisatory creative music, research, and jazz into her compositions, workshops, and performances.

Amanda composes music filled with imagery and strong narratives. Her compositions have earned support from New Music USA, Chamber Music America, and the Jerome Foundation, and have been featured at the Portland Jazz Festival, Panama Jazz Festival, and the Kennedy Center. Amanda’s album “Keys With No Purpose,” was written as a reaction to the sexist culture women continue to face in jazz. The album received praise in Downbeat Magazine, features an 11-piece large ensemble, and earned Amanda the St. Botolph Club Foundation Artist Award. Other recent work includes “Some Short Songs” and “Some (more) Short Songs” which are part of Amanda’s ongoing song cycle that features the whimsical nature of her writing, and Árabe, a collaboration with the Syrian Ladies Club, her family, and neighbors about Syrian immigration to El Paso/Mexico and the influence these mixed cultures had on film, food, economy, and music. Amanda earned a 2022 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer’s Award honorable mention for her composition “Three Days” which is part of Árabe.

Amanda is a dedicated teaching artist and avid researcher. She is the founder of El Paso Jazz Girls, a non-profit organization for young female musicians that serves as a direct, practical intervention for gender equity in her hometown jazz community and which earned Amanda the 2022 Jazz Hero Award from the Jazz Journalist Association. Her most recent research “Exclusion and Pushout: Females in Jazz Education” has also informed her teaching practice and El Paso Jazz Girls’ curriculum. Amanda has been invited to present her research at the International Women in Music Leadership Conference in London, the Washington Women in Jazz Festival, and the International Jazz Voice Conference in Helsinki, Finland.

Amanda holds a Master of Music in Jazz Performance from the New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music in Jazz Studies from the University of North Texas. She is on faculty at The New School and Fordham University, and a regular at her local public library.

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PRESS

“Vision and curiosity drive Amanda Ekery’s expression. The singer, composer and lyricist braids together musical styles, and draws inspiration from a range of sounds as well as historical research. Her music invites inquiry. Short lyrical phrases and long arcs of development become vessels for self-disclosure and a sharp, penetrating sense of humor.” Stephanie Jones, Hot House Jazz Magazine

“Amanda Ekery is a quiet warrior in the world of jazz. She works tirelessly on her craft as a vocalist and multi-instrumentalist, but beyond her own music brings people together by amplifying their personal voices. She has provided opportunities to those committed to the growth, evolution and advancement of gender equality within jazz’s national and international communities.” Jordannah Elizabeth, Jazz Journalist Association

“She utilizes a stunning head voice which is incredible; and unlike so many others, it’s not used to show off and is crystal clear. Even more impressive is her writing with a penchant for fresh harmonies, form, and a talent for communication with her quartet which at times is tightly controlled but allows all the chance to lead their own sounds.” Ran Blake, MacArthur Fellow

“Ekery’s ethereal scatting floats above piano tremelo within her impressive compositions, as on “Skeleton Key,” where the interplay between Ekery and her ensemble segues...The bandleader’s melodious earworm “I Don’t Know,” displays her natural inclination for inventive compositional moves and popular genres.” Kerilie McDowall, Downbeat

“Ekery opens doors for the listener being both a teacher and leader on these songs and she proves to be wonderful at both. Highly recommend. Ekery shows off her vocals that are sharp as a tack. They become an instrument in and of themselves...and really lets the listeners know that they are in the hands of a highly trained master.” Jamie Robash, Pitch Perfect

“El Paso native Amanda Ekery is out to close the gap with El Paso Jazz Girls. She launched the program to bring together young females musicians to play music and learn about jazz – and to work toward greater equity on the jazz stage.” Cindy Graff Cohen, El Paso Inc