Amy Dodington (B.Sc., B.Mus.) is an artist and musician to the depths of her being. Her voice possesses exceptional sincerity, warmth and clarity. Amy has the ability to find the heart of a song and present it with all its raw emotional substance. A double graduate of the University of Toronto - in Science and in Music, and a scholarship student at both Faculties - Amy is a musician of unique diversity and intelligence.

Amy is a freelance performer in Toronto and elsewhere. In June, 2007, Amy was a National Finalist in the Canadian Music Competition held in Sherbrooke, Québec. She performs frequently as a guest soloist with the Cellar Singers of central Ontario, directed by Albert Greer. Appearances with them include J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in April 2006 and Handel’s Messiah in December 2006 (along with Vicki St. Pierre, Mezzo soprano, Mark DuBois, tenor, and Steven Pitkanen, Baritone).

In an ongoing series of solo concerts in Toronto, Amy has delighted audiences with her eclectic programs including music ranging from opera and art song to Broadway and Victorian parlour songs - all treated with the respect and sincerity she feels they deserve. Amy has begun extending these “nostalgia” concerts to locales outside of Toronto, performing at Shelburne Ontario in the wonderful acoustics of the restored Grace Tipling Concert Hall in 2006, and giving a special joint concert with her uncle John Dodington at St. John’s Church, Alliston in 2007. Since 2005 Amy has presented art songs in six solo lecture-concerts as a Sunday Song Salon Series at Kingsway-Lambton United Church, Toronto, with pianist Vojislav Perucica. Amy has enjoyed the challenges they took on together for this series. The biggest challenge for her was the sixth Salon, exploring the fantastic Russian repertoire and tackling the Russian language with Voja’s coaching. A seventh, “best-of” Salon was held at Shaftesbury, Toronto in March 2007 to say farewell to Voja as he headed back home to Serbia. Amy continues to work along with other musicians in the Sunday Song Salon series at Kingsway-Lambton Church, expanding the concept to include more performers and eclectic concert designs.

In the summers of 2004, 2005 and 2007, Amy was a member of elite groups of musicians chosen by audition from up to thirty-three countries to participate in Helmuth Rilling’s Festival Ensembles. These groups toured Germany, sponsored by the Internationale Bachakademie Stuttgart. Special highlights included performing J. S. Bach’s B Minor Mass in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig (the site of Bach’s grave!), and at the Berlin Philharmonie. Amy also enjoyed a week of solo travel in Germany in August, 2007, absorbing the language and culture. In June 2005 and 2006 Amy participated in the Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute, an intense two-week course in Toronto, Canada, with lectures,workshops and performances on Baroque music, dance, drama and art. In January 2004 she was a member of the Bach chamber choir in Toronto's inaugural Bach Festival, working for the first time with Helmuth Rilling as he shared his unique insights into J.S. Bach’s compositional brilliance and devotion. During her four years in U of T’s music program Amy performed as one of four soloists in two U of T productions of works by New York minimalist composer Steve Reich: Tehillim and Music for 18 Musicians.

Amy Dodington has come a long way since the days when she would fall asleep under the piano during the Cellar Singers’ post-concert parties. Only four years old then, she was already absorbing music through her pores. Her first formal performance was at age seven in the children’s chorus in the Cellar Singers’ production of J. S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion. Since then, Bach’s music has held a special place in her heart. Amy is delighted that she came full
circle to sing that incredible work with them in 2006 - this time as a
soloist.

In her teen years, Amy was an inaugural member of the Couchiching Young Singers, a member of the Cellar Singers and the Ontario Youth Choir, and studied occasionally with Albert Greer. In her early years, Amy studied piano and theory at the Royal Conservatory of Music, and played trumpet, french horn, flute, and violin. She is also a self-taught guitarist. While continuing her voice studies with Peter Barnes and then with Monica Whicher, Amy has had the privilege of working with many world-class musicians including Elly Ameling, Helmuth Rilling, Mary Morrison (O.C.), Catherine Robbin, and Ruth Watson Henderson.

Amy’s desire for intellectual stimulation earned her an Honours Bachelor of Science with High Distinction from U of T (June, 2000) in Zoology, Anthropology and Environmental Science. An Arbor Scholar valued for her diverse talents and commitment to excellence, Amy kept her musical muse alive despite the pressures of her science studies, singing with the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir, the Hart House Chorus, and the Oriana Singers, and having the occasional voice lesson with Catherine Robbin and Darryl Edwards. A year after that first graduation, she knew she was ready to focus all her powers into her one true passion - music. Amy was accepted into the music program at U of T and graduated for the second time four years later with a dedication and love for music that burns ever more brightly.

Amy is developing her professional career as a freelance soloist and voice teacher, while continuing her private studies with Monica Whicher. She performs oratorio, art song and early music; presents solo recitals and eclectic concert programs; sings at weddings, funerals and community events; and does some recording. She is a soprano soloist and section lead at Kingsway-Lambton United Church directed by Ruth Watson Henderson, and with the Toronto Chamber Choir directed by Mark Vuorinen.