About this Artist
El Paso, TX-raised AMY TATUM obtained her Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from USC’s Thornton School of Music, and previously a Bachelor of Music, Magna Cum Laude, in the same field from Arizona State University. Amy has performed for The Bolshoi Ballet and Ballet Arizona, and she played principal flute in the American Youth Symphony, where she served four seasons. Since then, Amy has appeared with numerous CA-based organizations such as New West Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, Riverside Symphony, Redlands Symphony, Stockton Symphony, and Center Stage Opera. As a recording artist, Ms. Tatum performs on a variety of flutes for film, television, video game and popular music, and has recorded on the Summit, Capitol, and XL record labels. Her playing can be heard on the latest albums by Yellowcard and Devendra Banhart, the movies Seven Pounds and Marmaduke, the Call of Duty, Black Ops and The Sims video games, and in television shows such as Fringe and How I Met Your Mother. Amy is fortunate to have collaborated with some of the world’s foremost artists and musicians, including Yo-Yo Ma, James Galway, Sarah Chang, Yundi Li, Quincy Jones, Natalie Cole, Stevie Wonder, James Moody, Dave Koz, Monica Mancini, Josh Groban, Brad Paisley, Michael McDonald, Shelly Berg, George Crumb, John Williams, and Esa-Pekka Salonen.
Amy is a founding member of LA-based Midnight Winds, whose performances have taken them most recently to New York for the Schneider Concert Series, to Arizona as artists-in-residence for Chamber Music Sedona, and to Poland for a multi-city tour. They have joined with other chamber musicians and organizations in the effort to reinstate the vogue status of chamber music in America. She is a strong proponent for new music, and commissions and performs new works by LA composers.
Having been blessed by dynamic, compassionate teachers with fervor for music from the start, Amy believes the most effective teacher is passion itself. She is entering her 4th year as a teaching artist for YOLA at Expo, where she teaches flute classes, woodwind sectionals, chamber music and orchestral coachings. Amy is also on staff at the Assistance League of Flintridge as a woodwind specialist, she is a flute and musicianship teaching artist for the Harmony Project’s Big Bang program in Lawndale and Lennox, and she teaches privately in the La Cañada area. Amy is committed to creating a safe and open space where young people are encouraged to explore, create, experiment, and develop the skills and personal power that are necessary to thrive as both musicians and citizens. She is ardently invested in the concept that music belongs to the masses and has the power to change our society and the world.