Amy Shelley

Drums

Get to know Amy Shelley

Always working to master a variety of styles and genre’s, Amy Shelley has been an active drummer in the Denver Metro scene for over a decade. Whether playing avant-garde jazz with Art Lande and Juli Royster in the band Cuddle, or playing a variety of instruments between drums, ukulele, and keyboards in the indie-rock duo High Fiction, Amy manages to balance assertive and grounded forward-motion playing with a deep sense of listening and responsiveness.

As an educator, Amy focuses on creating a strong foundation in technique and theory in order to provide students a solid base and options as they move forward. She loves discovering what individual students are passionate about, and she loves sharing her joy in music. Teaching private lessons for 17 years, Amy has developed systems, materials, and games to help find the fun side of learning technique and theory as well as more complex concepts like musicality, phrasing and creative expression through music. She has taught individuals ages 4-adult, and has taught master classes at the middle school, high school and university levels. She has deep roots in jazz, rock, funk and Brazilian music, as well as a great deal of experience with classical, bluegrass, and pop forms and working with singer/songwriters.

Currently, Amy performs regularly with her bands High Fiction and Cuddle, and in the bands Monica Whittington & the Blue Hearts, Dave Tamkin & Co., andMonocle. Beyond these gigs she remains an active freelance performer and recording artist. Amy is also the Executive Director of Evolving Doors Dance, where, among other things, she accompanies modern dance classes using drums, vocals, guitar, ukulele, piano, octapad, and a variety of percussion hand drums and toys. She also composes music to be performed live during performances, as well as creates pre-recorded soundscapes to be used during performance.

Amy began playing at the age of 11 in Riverton, Wyoming, and she received her Bachelor of Music degree in Percussion Performance with a certificate in jazz studies from the University of Colorado in 2002.