Robynn M. Amy is a freelance artist in the Boston area who specializes on both the tenor and bass trombones. She is an instructor in the Brass Department at Boston's Berklee College of Music and travels as the trombone clinician for the Monterey Jazz Festival. She has performed in big bands and orchestras all over the world, including the European Youth Jazz Orchestra, Sherry Maricle and the DIVA Jazz Orchestra, the Kendrick Oliver New Life Jazz Orchestra, the John Allmark Jazz Orchestra, the Henry Mancini Institute Alumni Big Band, and the Artie Shaw Orchestra, among many others. In addition, Robynn can be heard on several commercially available albums by artists such as Syncopation, the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, and Against the Grain.
While working on her degree in 2002, Robynn was hired at Harmonix Music Systems, Inc. in Cambridge MA where she began as a bug tester on the PlayStation®2 series Karaoke Revolution. She was quickly promoted to Assistant Producer on the final installment, Karaoke Revolution Party, which was released on PS2, GameCube, and Xbox. Robynn's final project with this company was Guitar Hero, where she served as Technical Requirements Consultant. Feeling the need to perform and teach music, Robynn decided to leave Harmonix in 2005 and begin an Instructor position at Berklee College of Music.
During her employment at Harmonix, Robynn collaborated with fellow trombonists Chris Dempsey, Chris Sears, and Chris Gagne to form the jazz trombone quartet Against the Grain. ATG had immense success in the short time it existed, winning the Eastern Trombone Workshop's National Jazz Ensemble and the International Trombone Association's Kai Winding Trombone Ensemble competitions. ATG was included in the July 2004 edition of Jazziz magazine and on the accompanying CD, Jazziz on Disc. In addition, Against the Grain completed their eponymous, debut album in 2005, featuring the arrangements of Hal Crook, Phil Wilson and members of ATG.
In the summer of 2006, Robynn was chosen as the first American to ever be included in the "Swinging Europe" European Youth Jazz Orchestra. The orchestra is comprised of one representative from each country included in the European Broadcasting Union. Robynn was invited to join the band on a seven country tour of Europe as the lead trombonist and was sponsored by NPR's JazzSet produced by Becca Pulliam, and the Berklee College of Music. Robynn was subsequently featured on JazzSet with Dee Dee Bridgewater for the American premiere of the final concert of this project, recorded live at BBC Studios in Glasgow, Scotland.
Robynn has had the privilege of performing with such artists as Slide Hampton, Donna McElroy, Michel Camilo, Gary Burton, Equie Castrillo, The Stylistics, McFadden and Whitehead, The Manhattans, Patrick Williams, Paquito D'Rivera, Christian McBride, Roy Hargrove, Burt Bacharach, and many others.
Robynn graduated from Berklee College of Music in December 2003 with a degree in Music Performance. She joined the faculty of Berklee in the summer of 2005 and currently resides in Boston, Massachusetts.
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