Ms. Amy Putnam, Master of Music in Percussion Performance from The Juilliard School 1996, is currently Principal Percussion with the Symphony Tacoma (formerly the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra). She has previously been Principal Percussion with the Bellevue Philharmonic from 1998-2010. From 1998-2010 she was also Affiliate Artist faculty at the University of Puget Sound where she led the percussion department and founded the UPS Percussion Ensemble. In addition, she served as Visiting Faculty in Percussion at Miami University of Ohio in 2002.
Currently, Ms. Putnam teaches privately at her studio in the East Renton Highlands. Teaching all areas and levels of orchestral percussion, solo marimba, rudimental snare drum and drumset, she also performs and teaches piano at the beginning through advanced intermediate levels.
Ms. Putnam's major percussion teachers included Greg Zuber, Jonathan Haas, Tom Stubbs, Doug Howard, William Albin, Paul Mootz, Daniel Druckman and Roland Kohloff. For piano, she studied with Arlene Geiser, Tatyana Sheyne and Jung-hee Chung. In addition to her Master's degree, Ms. Putnam holds a Bachelor of Music Education and a Bachelor of Music Performance from Miami University of Ohio as well as a Superior Prize Diploma from the Conservatory of Luxembourg.
As a solo marimbist, Ms. Putnam has performed with the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, the Bellevue Philharmonic, the Tacoma Concert Band, the Miami University Percussion Ensemble, Wind Ensemble and Orchestra, the Luxembourg Conservatory Percussion Ensemble and the University of Puget Sound Percussion Ensemble. She has also performed solo recitals in New York, Ohio, Washington, and Luxembourg.
As an orchestral percussionist and timpanist, Ms. Putnam has performed with the The Seattle Symphony, The Seattle Symphony Recording Orchestra, Tacoma Symphony Orchestra, Bellevue Philharmonic, Northwest Sinfonietta, The Seattle Men's Chorus, The Oregon Symphony and The Seattle Choral Company. She can be heard on the soundtracks of more than 50 movies, recorded with the Seattle Symphony Recording Orchestra from 1998-2012 for Dreamworks, Microsoft, TNT, Disney, A&E, NBC and more.
At the age of 16, Ms. Putnam became a member of the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps and toured the US for four summers from 1988-1991. As a DCI solo competitor, she won the solo keyboard category at DCI International in both 1990 and 1991. In 1991, she won the highest score of all instruments, 98.5/100.
Other competitions Ms. Putnam has won include the Aspen Music Festival Marimba Competition 1994, the Miami University Young Artists competition 1990, the Miami University concerto competition 1991, the St, Louis Concerto Competition (semi-finalist), and the Luxembourg Solo Marimba competition 1995 (semi-finalist).
Ms. Putnam lives in Renton, Washington with her Guitarist/Husband Bryce, Dancer/Daughter Allie and French Horn/Violinist/Son Charlie.