| Amanda Somerville | |
|---|---|
| Born | March 7, 1979 Flushing, Michigan |
| Genres | Pop, heavy metal, symphonic metal, progressive metal |
| Occupations | Singer–songwriter |
| Instruments | Vocals, piano |
| Years active | 1997 - present |
| Associated acts | Somerville Aina Avantasia Epica HDK Kiske/Somerville Trillium |
Amanda Somerville (born March 7, 1979) is an American singer-songwriter and vocal coach.
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Somerville was born in Flushing, Michigan,[1] and attended Flushing Senior High School and the University of Michigan in Flint, Michigan. Somerville moved to Wolfsburg, Germany in 1999 where she has since resided, working mainly in Germany and the Netherlands.[2]
Somerville has written and recorded with bands After Forever, Edguy, Kamelot, Epica, Avantasia and Docker's Guild, and has produced two solo albums.[3] Her music focuses on soft and elegant pop rock with some hard rock, folk and soul music influences.
She has collaborated with several of these metal bands alongside producers Sascha Paeth and Michael Rodenberg, which took her to collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Robert Hunecke-Rizzo co-writing the rock opera Aina. Later she made a similar collaboration with guitarist Sander Gommans (After Forever), providing vocals and lyrical concept for the project HDK.[2] In 2008, she toured America with Dutch heavy metal band Epica, while regular vocalist Simone Simons recovered from a staph infection.[1]
In 2010, she has collaborated with Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween singer) on a musical project entitled Kiske/Somerville. The band is a melodic metal act put together by Frontiers Records, as similar project as Allen/Lande. Songwriting and producing was made by Primal Fear bassist Mat Sinner with collaboration by guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Allen/Lande, also from Primal Fear), Sander Gommans, Jimmy Kresic and Amanda herself. Their first single, Silence was released on August 20. Their self-titled album was released on 24 September 2010 by Frontiers Records, after the single accompanied by a music video for Silence.
Amanda was also one of the live guest vocalists for Tobias Sammet's metal opera Avantasia two world tours in 2008 and 2010. Her role onstage was mainly singing backing vocals during the whole setlist and lead vocals for the song Farewell.[4]
In 2011, Amanda has finally released her first heavy metal-oriented project called Trillium with the record company Frontiers Records. The project has contributions by Sascha Paeth, Michael Rodenberg, Sander Gommans and a guest appearance of Jørn Lande on a duet vocal track with Amanda.[5]
Somerville's contributions include vocals, coaching, production and choir conductor:
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