Amanda Ross

Visiting Assistant Professor of Music
Applied Trumpet
[email protected]

Amanda Ross is an active musician and educator passionate about furthering music performance and education. Dr. Ross recently served as Acting Principal Trumpet of Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra and has performed with ensembles such as Erie Philharmonic and Ann Arbor Camerata Orchestra. During her graduate studies at the University of Michigan, she was Principal Trumpet and ensemble member on several recordings by the University of Michigan Symphony Band and Symphony Orchestra, including as featured soloist on Michael Daugherty’s Labyrinth of Love and Jim Stephenson’s The Storyteller alongside her teacher William Campbell and violinist Matt Albert.

She is a prolific chamber musician, performing with ensembles across the country. Recently she has performed with ÆPEX Contemporary Performance and International Contemporary Ensemble, where she was an ensemble member for premieres by Garrett Schumann, George Lewis, and Alvin Lucier. At the University of Michigan, she held membership in the University of Michigan Faculty Brass Quintet, Michigan Chamber Players, and Contemporary Directions Ensemble. She has participated in chamber festivals worldwide, including Ensemble Evolution, Strange Beautiful Music XI and IX, Soundscape Exchange in Maccagno, Italy, and Bar Harbor Brass Institute.

She is co-founder of Girlnoise, a mixed-chamber ensemble committed to celebrating the artistry of women in contemporary chamber music. Girlnoise has premiered original works by composers Annika Socolofsky, Nadine Dyskant-Miller, Tanner Porter, and Clay Gonzalez, among others, as well as performing arrangements spanning early motets to modern popular music and compositions written by ensemble members. In August 2021, Girlnoise presented the ensemble-composed work, For What, For Whom, at the New Music Gathering in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Dr. Ross’s research focuses on making music performance and education more equitable, accessible and diverse. In February 2019, she started a long-term research project centered around representation in trumpet pedagogy and performance. The first project, “The Impact of Representation in the Arts: How Racism is Manifested in the Classical Trumpet World,” was published in the January 2021 edition of the International Trumpet Guild Journal, which was peer-reviewed and approved by the editorial board.

In May 2020, Dr. Ross earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Trumpet from the University of Michigan. She earned graduate degrees in Trumpet and Chamber Music at the University of Michigan and completed a Bachelor of Music in Trumpet with a Jazz Emphasis at Baldwin Wallace University. Her primary trumpet instructors were William Campbell, Robert Sullivan, Tom Booth, Jason Bergman, Jack Brndiar, and Jack Sutte. She previously held teaching positions at the University of Michigan as Interim Instructor of Trumpet and Graduate Student Assistant.