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Amy Denio (rhymes with ‘Ohio’) an award-winning singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, improviser, and recording engineer. She has been creating soundtracks for dance, theater, film, television and installations in collaboration with artists all over the world since 1984. She lives with her partner in the rainforest near Seattle, Washington.

Denio is a gifted collaborator and can help your project shine ~ as a session musician, arranger, or as your record producer! CONTACT DENIO

Her instruments are acoustic/electric/12-string and baritone guitar, electric bass, ukulele, clarinet, alto sax, tin whistle and ethnic flutes, accordion, cello, baritone horn, theremin, and percussion. An experienced looper, she invents new songs on the fly with her four-octave vocal range.

She released her first cassette No Bones in 1986 on her record label, Spoot Music. Since then, she’s produced nearly 700 compositions, soundtracks and collaborative recordings for Spoot and for a variety of international record labels ~ with artists from near and far.

Denio has toured internationally since 1987, and is currently writing a bilingual book of travel stories (English and Italian), due to be published by More Nocturne Books in Abruzzo Italy this year.

Her soundtracks for film, dance, theater, television, radio, sound installations and other special projects have garnered her the nickname of Seattle’s Avant Goddess.

Notable Achievements: Denio was inducted into the Seattle Jazz Hall of Fame by Earshot Jazz, and has been awarded fellowships at Mills College (Oakland California), Civitella Ranieri (a 15th century castle in Italy) and the ArtsLink Irish Fellowship. She is grateful to a plethora of arts organizations for supporting her work for over 30 years, including ArtsLink (George Soros) which funded her creative collaborations with Ne Zhdali (Estonia), The Danubians (Hungary/Czech) and The Legendary Poptones (Bulgaria).

Her interactive public Sonic Bench was first installed at the Monorail Station at Seattle Center and is now on permanent exhibit on Vashon Island, Washington.

Bands: She loves playing in remote places where tourists don’t often go ~ and through the years has co-founded and participated in musical/creative projects in North and South America, Europe, Central and Eastern Europe, Russia, India, Japan and Taiwan. Denio’s music has been featured at Carnegie Hall, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Seattle Opera House, Detroit Institute of Art, Venice Biennale, the Roman Theater in Trieste, and on top of 3 Metro Buses in Seattle. She’s played festivals, squats, churches, schools, prisons, decommissioned army bunkers and other ruins ~ and one abandoned mercury mine.

A seasoned collaborator, she’s had the pleasure of collaborating with musicians such as Danny Barnes, Matt Cameron, Fred Chalenor, Chris Cutler, Chuck D, Faust, Bill Frisell, Fred Frith, Hoppy Kamiyama, Guy Klucevsek, Francisco Lopez, Pauline Oliveros, Il Parto delle Nuvole Pesanti, Roy Paci, Hans Reichel and Ronin

Chamber Works: Along with her passion for free improvisation, she has received commissions to compose chamber works for the Berkeley Symphony, the Relâche Ensemble, Die Knödel, Orkestar Istina, Ensemble Varieté and the New York Festival of Song.

Denio teaches music privately, and also leads music-related workshops on improvisation, conduction, technique and everything in between ~ all over the world, to all ages and skill sets. She’s taught at the Seattle Drum School since 2017.

SELECTED VIDEOS:

Hansville with Grits, a short documentary of her new life in Kitsap County, featuring her images and music.

All Together Now, Denio’s short film describing one way she composes. Filmed in March, 2020 on her fourth day of quarantine at the beginning of the COVID Pandemic.

Sarajevo Kultur Shock live in Skopje Makedonia

Snijeg, Kultur Shock’s rendition of an old Ottoman Empire song from Bosnia, now the LGBTQ+ anthem in the Balkans.

Raisa, a composition by Denio for the Tiptons Sax quartet, performed at On The Boards ~ with artist Danijel Žeželj painting live!

Summertime, with Johnny Sangster’s Jazz Ensemble at Crackle and Pop Recording Studio.