Amy Nelson (Bb Cornet, Concert Master)
Amy Nelson loves playing the cornet and has performed cornet solos in a variety of venues including the Grant Park Music Festival (Chicago), Great American Brass Band Festival (Kentucky), Grand Celebration of Brass Bands (Iowa), World Music Conference (Holland), Illinois Music Educator Association Conference and the International Women's Brass Conference. She was awarded first place in both the slow melody and technical solo divisions of the North American Brass Band Association's national solo competition four different years, placing in the top three nine times over nine years. She placed first in the International Women's Brass Conference category three trumpet solo competition. Amy is a performing artist for Richard Smith Musical Instruments and plays a Smith Watkins soloist cornet.
Amy served as principal cornet and personnel manager of the Chicago Brass Band, winners of the 2004 NABBA Championship division and the NABBA representatives at the 2005 World Brass Band Competition in the Netherlands. Prior to joining the CBB she was a member of the Illinois Brass Band, six-time NABBA champions, where she served as cornet section leader and personnel manager and was a frequent soloist. She toured England with the IBB and toured America with the Regent Brass Band of London, England. These days Amy can be found in New Jersey performing with the Imperial, Princeton, and Atlantic Brass Bands. She is the principal cornet of the Athena Brass Band.
Amy is currently freelancing in the New York City/Tri-State area. She is a member of the Gramercy Brass Orchestra of New York. She has performed with such Broadway shows as Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the national tour of Evita. Orchestral performances have included work with the Queens Symphony, the American Symphony and the New Brunswick Chamber Orchestra. She recently completed a recording project with composer Joseph Dymit of original trumpet works entitled Battlecry (www.piquedamemusic.com). She believes in the importance of music education and works with a program in Brooklyn which provides instrumental instruction for students without access to music in schools. Amy knows the location of most of the Godiva stores in NYC and tends to worship at the feet of those who bring her chocolate.
