Amanda Heim is an educator, saxophonist, and arranger. She currently serves on the faculty of the Sunderman Conservatory of Music at Gettysburg College, where she instructs private saxophone, saxophone quartet, and courses in music theory and aural skills. She is an active arranger, writing for saxophone quartet, wind ensemble, and jazz ensembles. She has a deep interest in pedagogy, and has published materials investigating the use of post-tonal analysis to improve saxophone quartet intonation and performance. Amanda frequently serves as an adjudicator and clinician for marching bands, wind ensembles, and jazz ensembles.
Amanda's recent concert appearances include performances as a soloist with the Modesto Symphony Orchestra, Grand Rapids Symphony, at the National University of Singapore, Shaanxi Normal University in Xi'an, Beijing Wuzi University, and Shanghai Maritime University. She has also appeared as a featured soloist with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro Symphonic Band, and has performed with the Greensboro Symphony Orchestra, the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, and the Roanoke Pops. Amanda has played on stage with musicians including Natalie Cole, Bernadette Peters, Tim Warfield, Eugene Rousseau, David Lockington, Glen Campbell, The Four Tops, Boz Scaggs, John Ellis, Peter Bernstein, and Lee Konitz.
As baritone saxophonist in the Minerva Saxophone Quartet, Amanda was a winner of MTNA state and regional competitions, as well as a finalist at the national level. Minerva was also named to the live semi-final round in the prestigious Fischoff Chamber Music Competition in South Bend, Indiana. Amanda is currently the baritone saxophonist for the Junction Saxophone Quartet, a professional ensemble that performs regularly in the mid-Atlantic region and the Midwest. She is also the baritone saxophonist for the Buzz Jones Big Band, a professional jazz ensemble in south-central Pennsylvania. Amanda can be heard as the soprano vocal soloist in the 2019 release of Letters from Gettysburg, by Canary Classics. In The Wall Street Journal, critic Allan Kozinn describes the performance: “Amanda Heim, the soprano soloist, sings the mother’s text, in the finale, with a moving sense of pained calmness.”
Amanda earned a degree in music education from Messiah College before attending UNC-Greensboro, where she earned the MM and DMA in saxophone performance, studying with Steven Stusek and Chad Eby, along with a post-master’s certificate in Music Theory Pedagogy.