Amanda Johnson
Amanda is a composer and violinist based in Sheffield on the edge of the Peak District National Park.
She composes, performs and records her own music that explores the themes of travel, migration, identity and freedom, combining environmental recordings with instruments and voices.
Her background is in classical music, with experience of professional performing as a violinist and an MA in performance from Huddersfield University. She also enjoys exploring the musical qualities of everyday environmental sounds and discovering ways to engage audiences in moments of shared human emotion through her music. Her ancestry has a significant influence on her work, which reflects a complex mix of heritage and culture as well as her family’s story of migration and travel.
She has recently worked with The National Trust, Buxton Museum, Off the Shelf festival, Sound and Music, Nottingham Trent University and Company Chameleon Dance in Manchester. Her music has been performed at venues across the UK including the Centre for Contemporary Art in Glasgow, Wentworth Woodhouse in Yorkshire and the National Media Museum. It has featured in radio broadcasts in the UK, USA and Switzerland and has been acquired by three public collections. In 2017 she was awarded the Francis Chagrin award from Sound and Music and in 2019 she received a scholarship from the Finzi Trust. This year she has been supported by Britten Pears Arts through a creative residency at Snape Maltings to work on Thea, her new opera inspired by one of her Bargee Traveller ancestors.