“Unafraid of melody” and “astonishingly beautiful.”
Charlottesville Classical
Composer/pianist/educator Amanda Harberg’s music has been presented at major venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Verizon Hall, and Symphony Center. Her writing for a wide range of instruments weaves classical Western tradition with contemporary influences to create a distinctively personal style which “conveys a thoroughly original sense of happiness in music,” according to Cleveland Classical. “She invigorates the brain and touches the soul,” says composer John Corigliano. “I love her work.”
In 2021, Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducted the premiere of her Piccolo Concerto with soloist Erica Peel and the Philadelphia Orchestra, calling it “an extraordinary addition to the limited repertoire.” A widely commissioned composer, her music is published by the Theodore Presser Co. and by AH Publications. It has been recognized by a Fulbright Hays Fellowship, Juilliard’s Peter Mennin Prize, two New Jersey Council on the Arts Fellowships, a New York State Council on the Arts fellowship, a MacDowell Colony summer residency, and nine NFA Newly Published Music awards. Her woodwind concerti have been performed on Gala Concerts at 2022 ClarinetFest® and the 2021 NFA Convention. Her Concerto for Viola and Orchestra was recorded on Naxos American Classics to critical acclaim, and has been played all over the world. Harberg’s recital music is frequently required repertoire at competitions on regional and national levels. Her music has become particularly beloved and bestselling in the woodwind world, and the website of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra has called her “a hero to the flute and piccolo community.”
Also active as a concert-level pianist, Harberg takes great joy in her activities as a collaborative pianist. She has a duo with Erica Peel (piccoloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra, and has recent performances with principles of major orchestras including Martin Chalifour (Los Angeles Philharmonic), YaoGuang Zhai (Baltimore Symphony), Robert Langevin (New York Philharmonic), Dennis Kim (Pacific Symphony), William Short (the Met Orchestra), and Keith Buncke (Chicago Symphony), as well as with close colleagues including Cobus du Toit, Adrian Morejon, Julietta Curenton, Matthew Roitstein, Eric Schultz, Sharon Sparrow, Valerie Coleman, Benjamin Fingland, Wendy Stern, Mindy Kaufman, and Andrea “Fluterscooter” Fischer.
As the in-house composer for Common Good Productions, Harberg has composed scores for The Abominable Crime, an award winning feature documentary, and Beyond Borders: Undocumented Mexican Americans which aired over 2,000 times on PBS stations across the country, as well as a number of shorter films for Common Good Productions.
Dr. Harberg is a dedicated educator with more than two decades of experience teaching composition, piano, music theory, aural skills, and 20th/21st century music history. She is an Associate Professor at Berklee College of Music in the Contemporary Writing and Production department, and in the summers she is on the composition faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp. Harberg began teaching through the Morse Fellowship program, which sends Juilliard students into New York City public schools. She also served on the faculty of the Juilliard School’s Music Advancement Program, which is dedicated to educating students from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds. Previously, Harberg was on the composition faculty at Rutgers University. She is a frequent guest at schools and universities where she enjoys working with young composers and performers.