Amis, Kenneth

Kenneth Amis

Kenneth Amis was born and raised in Bermuda. He began playing the piano at a young age and upon entering high school took up the tuba and developed an interest in performing and writing music. A Suite for Bass Tuba, composed when he was only fifteen, marked his first published work. A year later, at age sixteen, he enrolled in Boston University where he majored in composition. After graduating from Boston University he attended the New England Conservatory of Music where he received his Masters Degree in composition.

An active composer, Mr. Amis has been commissioned to write for the annual Cohen Wing opening at Symphony Hall in Boston, the New England Conservatory Wind Ensemble, the University of Scranton, the College Band Directors National Association and a consortium of twenty universities and music organizations. He has also undertaken commissions/residences with the Boston Classical Orchestra, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Massachusetts Instrumental Conductors Association and Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra of Boston.

Audiences around the world have enjoyed Mr. Amis’s music through performances by such groups as the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra, the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Classical Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.

As a tuba player, Mr. Amis has performed as a soloist with the English Chamber Orchestra and has been a member of the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra and the New World Symphony Orchestra. His performance skills are showcased on many commercial records distributed internationally. Mr. Amis has served on the faculties of Boston University, Boston University Tanglewood Institute, the Conservatory of Music at Lynn University in Boca Raton, Florida and the Pacific Music Festival in Japan. In 2003 Mr. Amis became the youngest recipient of New England Conservatory of Music’s “Outstanding Alumni Award.”

Mr. Amis is presently the tuba player of the Empire Brass and the Palm Beach Opera Orchestra and the assistant conductor for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Wind Ensemble. His many compositions, arrangements, and transcriptions are published by Seesaw Music Corp., Boosey and Hawkes, Inc. and Amis Musical Circle.