Biography

Amber Ferenz is a nonbinary bassoonist and award-winning composer and arranger. Inspired deeply by the beauty, magic and mystery of the natural world, they write pieces that weave together melodies and healing songs given by Nature with their own musical ideas.

Their most recent compositions include “Kachina” for bassoon and orchestra, which is slated for its World Premiere with the Western Piedmont Symphony in Hickory, NC on May 16, 2024, with the composer as the featured soloist.

Other recent works are “Tales From the Grove” and “Unfinished Conversations” for bassoon and piano, “Wood, Water, and Roses: Women’s Medicine for Difficult Times” and “Yellow Poplar with Birdsong” for solo bassoon, as well as “Tall Tales” for bassoon quartet.

“These Four Directions” for wind quartet was an official selection for performance at the 2022 Music By Women Festival in Columbus, Mississippi. It was commissioned by Winston-Salem based Elektra Winds in 2021, and is their first piece for wind quartet. In early 2023, “These Four Directions” was chosen by the Silent Voices Festival in Bimidji, Minnesota as a winning selection.

Amber teaches bassoon at Gardner-Webb University, is a founding member of both Elektra Winds and Charlotte-based Queen City Winds, and is second bassoonist with the Asheville Symphony, and serves on the Board of the Bassoon Chamber Music Composition Competition (BCMCC). They are also the third/contra bassoonist for the Greensboro Symphony, a frequent sub with the Charlotte Symphony, and have been the Camp Coordinator for the Glickman-Popkin Bassoon Camp since 2007. TrevCo Music publishes Amber’s entire catalogue.