Amy Knoles has spent her career attempting to redefine the crossroads of music composition, multimedia art, and technology. Her solo works draw on a huge variety of source material from throughout history, language and culture as well as from her own personal imagination. Medieval polyphony, modern urban rhythms, atonal deconstructions and classic melodies have all been filtered through the lens of her idiosyncratic voice at one time or another.  Knoles's ability to invent both high and low-tech methods of constructing musical and multimedia experiences as well as her virtuosity as a percussionist make for an ideal blend. Her work has been described as being of "frightening beauty, fascinating, complex" - N.P.R.  A "Los Angeles' new music Luminary, infinitely variable, infinitely fascinating" - Los Angeles Times.  Amy has received major awards from Meet The Composer (2006), American Composers Forum (2005 & 2007 & 2009), Durfee Foundation (2003), UNESCO (2001), C.O.L.A. (2001), Lester Horton (2001), and was the 1996 ASCAP Foundation " Composer-in-Residence at the Music Center of Los Angeles”.  Amy has been the Executive Director of the California E.A.R. Unit for twenty-nine years, and has recently created the department of Electronic Percussion for CalArts. She has worked with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, Pierre Boulez, Rachel Rosenthal, LA Master Chorale, NatPlast, Squint, Ensemble Modern of Frankfurt, The Bang On A Can All Stars; Composers: Cage, Carter, Feldman, Knowles, Andriessen, Kagel, Wourinen, Wolfe, Preston, Zappa, Subotnick, Reich, Machover, Flea, Jones, and many others.

 

 Recent commissions include "My Brazil" - Rachel Rosenthal, performance Artist | 2011 , "A Gallerina's Guide" - Collage Dance Theater | 2011 Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA. Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ . Laurel Hardware Space, West Hollywood, CA, "Smalest Gesture/Grandest Frame" - Victoria Marks choreographer | 2011 Redcat and Lund Theaters, a sound environment for the J. Paul Getty Museum , for Dance: SLEEPING WITH THE AMBASSADOR -Collage Dance Theater, BELGO- a piece commissioned by Vicki Ray for solo pianist and electronics, Rachel Rosenthal's final solo piece UR-BOOR.

Amy has recorded nearly 30 CD's of new music and is proud to announce the release of her solo recordings "Men in the Cities" and "2 x 10 x 10 x 10 + 1", on the Echograph Label.

Ms. Knoles has recorded for Sony Classics, Echograph, Cold Blue, Barking Pumpkin, CRI, Voyager CD-ROM, New Albion, Nonesuch, New World, O.O. Discs, C.B.S., R.C.A., Relativity, and Crystal Records. Her music has been described as being of "frightening beauty, fascinating, complex" -N.P.R. A "Los Angeles' new music Luminary, infinitely variable, infinitely fascinating" - Los Angeles Times. Amy is a recipient of the "UNESCO International Prize for the Performing Arts-2000", the 2001 Lester Horton Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music for Dance", 1999-2000 "Indiviual Artist Fellowship" Award from C.O.L.A. to create an hour long multi-media work "2 x 10 x 10 x 10 + 1" and she was the 1996 ASCAP Foundation " Composer-in-Residence at the Music Center of Los Angeles".