Amy Sims, violin
As concertmaster of the Omaha Symphony for nine years, Amy Sims leads performances ranging from large-scale symphonic repertoire and opera to chamber orchestra, string quartet and solo in the Omaha area and in communities around the state of Nebraska. She collaborates with her symphony colleagues and other Omaha-area artists in popular community concert series including the Omaha Chamber Music Society's Music as Medicine, Noon-time, and Summer Concert series, the Organ Vesper series and Omaha Baroque, and presents new music with Analog Arts' Artsaha! series, as well as country/Irish/jazz fusions at the Blue Barn Music Festival.
Sims holds two degrees in violin performance from the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, where she studied with Eudice Shapiro. Prior to coming to Omaha, Sims was principal second violin of Orange County's Pacific Symphony Orchestra for six years and freelanced around southern California as a studio musician playing for movie soundtracks and television commercials. She was also a member of Southwest Chamber Music, a contemporary music ensemble that is active in commissioning and presenting new works from living composers. Her recordings with that ensemble include the works of Lou Harrison, Charles Wuorinen, Robert Linn and William Kraft.
She perfroms each August at the Peninsula Music Festival of Door County, Wisconsin, as that orchestra's assistant concertmaster. Sims also likes to coach and mentor young music students and maintains a small private studio.