photo: Al Petteway
Born to professional
classical musicians and the youngest of three children, Amy White was
both nurtured and surrounded by several genres of music. Amy
composes and plays by ear. As a result, she has a unique approach
to composition and her work reflects this serendipitous combination of
contemporary instrumental, classical, jazz, folk, pop and rock
influences.
Although
piano was her first love, Amy is a natural multi-instrumentalist who
delights in the challenge and inspiration of various instruments. Her
performances regularly feature mandolin, piano, guitar, percussion,
Celtic harp, vocals and mountain dulcimer. Amy began composing
music in early childhood and began performing in her early teens with
dance theater ensembles at Washington area universities, concert
series, and arts festivals. Over the years, she appeared in concert
with a world-beat ensemble, recorded and performed with two a capella
groups at Kenyon College, and performed as a soloist and composer
at Dance Recitals. From 1994 to the present, Amy has been
performing almost exclusively with her husband, Grammy-Winning
guitarist Al Petteway. Together, Al & Amy have won dozens of
awards from WAMA, as well as the coveted “Indie” Award for Acoustic
Instrumental Music from the Association for Independent Music in 2001,
and a few more honors from the Just Plain Folks Awards in 2009.
Alto 1 Section -- from the "Sing
Sing" album
Kenyon College Owl Creek Singers
1983/84
Amy
began composing music in early childhood. She won her first award
for piano composition from the Virginia Music Teacher’s Association at
the age of eleven, and has continued to receive acclaim. In 1995,
Amy received an award from the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) for
her solo instrumental performance on piano. She received the same award
for her solo mandolin performance in 1998. She also
received an MSAC award for Music Composition on Piano and Guitar in
2001. Amy’s debut recording of original compositions, Piano
Diaries: and other entries, was named ‘Best New Age Album’ in 1996, by
the Washington Area Music Association (WAMA).
Although
she cannot top her brother’s coming-of-musical-age story (Andy
requested his favorite symphonies and arias by singing them in his
crib, well before he had learned to speak) music did figure prominently
in Amy's life. As a child, Amy routinely parodied her mother’s
voice students. She’d sing Tarzan to Carmen in the forest
surrounding her home. Her mother was very kind about scolding her
for this habit, particularly since there were times when she may have
sounded better than a student or two. At least Amy liked to think
so…. The music teacher at elementary school was not quite as
forgiving, however, and Amy was often sent to the principal’s office
for singing with excessive, comic vibrato. Definitely not the sound you
are looking for from a child chorus.
Amy
has always enjoyed making music on any available instrument. She
composed music for all the instruments brought back from her father’s
and sister’s trips abroad, on anything from Charangos to
Balalaikas. When traditional musical instruments weren’t
available, Amy was resourceful. Breakfast dishes or glazed pots
recently removed from the kiln were always fair game – and the more
variety the better. Stair banisters, too, and even a disemboweled
piano harp, which sounded best when struck from afar by flung
objects. The creek in front of Amy’s childhood home held infinite
possibilities, as well. During one blissful childhood summer at
Camp Lachlan, Amy and her sister Lisbet learned to whistle through
their hands. They learned this hand-whistling so well that they
began performing rounds and complex two-part harmonies. It was
only later in life that they learned this type of whistling was not
necessarily a standard past-time. They are always surprised and
pleased to meet a fellow hand-whistler who can join in their
rounds. The sisters made their national hand-whistling debut on a
special NPR / All Things Considered interview broadcast on Thanksgiving
Day, 1998. This interview featured stories about "music in the
family" and live performance of selections from Amy's 2nd solo piano
release, Bittersweet ~ an American Romance.
Like
most artists, Amy is inter-disciplinary at heart. In addition to music,
she loves to create and work in a variety of media, including
stone-carving, silvercasting, stained glass, 3-D collage, mosaics,
block-printing and photography. Amy is extremely fortunate to have many
of her photographs represented by the National Geographic Society’s
Image Collection, where her husband, Al Petteway worked as an image
editor for nearly 2 decades.
For
the past several years, Amy has been consumed with digital photography
and photomontage. In addition to mountain scenery, she has concentrated
on photographing cats and the natural world and creating alternate
realities for her favorite winged creatures. Amy is thrilled to
have encountered this perfect marriage of technology and creative
passion. She can now more easily reveal and celebrate the
presence of the many Cat Angels in our lives. CAT ANGELS:
the Secret Lives of Cats, Amy’s first full-color book of photomontages, was released in early 2010. Please visit www.CatAngels.com for more information.
Formerly
natives of the Washington, DC area (Arlington, VA & Takoma Park, MD
respectively), Amy and her husband now live at 4200 feet elevation,
just outside of Asheville, North Carolina. Amy & Al share their
beautiful mountain aerie with 4 charismatic cats and the 2 best shelter
doggies that money can’t buy. It is clear that cats have commandeered
much of Amy’s visual artwork for years to come. And dogs are next in
line.
F a i r e w o o d S t
u d i o s
P.O. Box 1093
Weaverville, NC 28787
Tel: 828-628-6428
AmyDWhite (at) me dot com