Recognized by the Yale Institute of Sacred Music as a conductor “of exceptional promise and achievement,” Amanda Weber is passionate about uniting music, art and community through her work as a conductor, teacher, performer, artist and social activist.

Amanda serves as the Minister of Music and the Arts at Westminster Presbyterian Church. She received a DMA in Conducting at the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Kathy Saltzman Romey and Matthew Mehaffey and served as the conductor for Campus Singers Gold and assistant conductor to the University Singers and Chamber Singers.  She has been active as a church musician from a very young age, including working as organist and choir director at Trinity Lutheran Congregation in Minneapolis, MN.  Both her work with students at the University and congregants at Trinity challenge Weber to engage in meaningful music-making with significantly multicultural populations.

In October 2015, Weber founded the Voices of Hope, a women’s prison choir at the Minnesota Correctional Facility in Shakopee.  Over the past year and a half, the choir has grown from 15 to 60 singers.  Weber recently spoke about female incarceration and the power of music at the UMN Robina Institute of Criminal Law & Justice.  She was also invited to speak at TEDx Minneapolis Salon, where she focused on music as a form of restorative justice.  Other talks include the College Music Society’s National Conference as well as the Association for Justice-Involved Females and Organizations Conference; additionally, Weber’s work has been featured in articles by the University of Minnesota and the Big Ten Network, among others.  Weber’s interest in using music as a tool for social justice grew through her work at Luther Place Memorial Church in Washington, DC, where she founded Bethany’s Women of Praise, a choir for homeless women.  Weber led this group from 2008-2011 and received recognition from Chorus America, the American Choral Director’s Association, Yale University, and Al Jazeera English.

Weber is active as a conductor, singer, pianist, and composer.  Recent conducting highlights include performances of Bach Cantata 106, Copland’s In the Beginning, and a premiere arrangement of Henry Brant’s Flight Over a Global Map.  She has assisted in preparing works such as Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, Handel’s Messiah, and Schoenberg’s Friede auf Erden.

Weber is a graduate of the Yale School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music, where she received a Master of Music Degree in Choral Conducting with Marguerite Brooks and Jeffrey Douma.  She has studied with many guest conductors including Masaaki Suzuki, Simon Carrington, Stefan Parkman, and David Hill, and has participated in conducting masterclasses in Florida, Paris, Sweden, and Switzerland.  Weber received a BA in Music and Art at Luther College.  She continues to create art in her free time, and was most recently commissioned to paint three murals in Washington, DC.

Keep up to date with Amanda's vital work at https://amandakateweber.com/.