Amy Knoles, Director of the Electronic Percussion Studios and Interim Head of Percussion at California Institute of the Arts, has headlined on major festivals throughout the world. Her music has been described as being of: "frightening beauty, fascinating, complex" by National Public Radio and she is described as "Los Angeles' new music Luminary, infinitely variable, infinitely fascinating" by the Los Angeles Times.
Amy is a recipient of: the ASCAP Foundation "Composer-in-Residence at the Music Center of Los Angeles", the Meet the Composer “Commissioning Music USA”, the American Composers Forum Subito Grant, the Durfee A.R.C., the Lester Horton Award for "Outstanding Achievement in Original Music for Dance”, the "UNESCO International Prize for the Performing Arts-2000", the "Individual Artist Fellowship Award" from C.O.L.A, the "Composer in Residence" Grant from the American Composers Forum, among many other awards.
Knoles was the Executive Director of the California E.A.R. Unit for thirty years (awarded the "Letter of Distinction" from the American Music Center), which had been the Ensemble in Residence at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art for nineteen years, subsequently finishing off their series at REDCAT (The Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater).
Amy has worked with: Los Angeles Philharmonic, Kronos Quartet, Rachel Rosenthal, Robert Henke (a.k.a. Monolake), Frank Zappa, Morton Subotnick, Ensemble Modern of Frankfurt, Flea, The Bang On A Can All Stars, Alison Knowles, Michael Sakamoto, Victoria Marks, Basso Bongo, John Cage, Elliott Carter, Julia Wolfe, Morton Feldman, David Lang, The Paul Dresher Ensemble, Mauricio Kagel, Vinko Globokar, Michael Gordon, Louis Andriessen, Lucky Mosko, Charles Wourinen, Don Preston, Arthur Jarvinen, Steve Reich, Tod Machover, Quincy Jones, Natural Plastic, Ulrich Krieger, Squint, and many others.
She performed on the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Tribute to Ernest Fleishmann at the request of Pierre Boulez (Walt Disney Concert Hall), China-Amsterdam Festival (Het Concertgebouw), Goteborg Art Sounds-Sweden, Choice Performing Arts Center-Kochin, India, Audio Art Festival- Krakow, Video Topics Festival - MAMC Strasbourg, Sacred Rhythm Festival - Bali/Kyoto, Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Days of Macedonian Music-Skopje, Helsinki Festival, Ojai Festival, the Totally Huge New Music Festival-Australia, Sunshine on Noir-Denmark, the Utah Festival, the Spoleto Festival, Sommer Theater Festival-Hamburg, The Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, The Cyber Arts Festival, The Eesti Festival, The Aspen Dance Festival, at Het Stedelijk Museum, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Yale University, the Julliard Conservatory of Music, the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and others too numerous to mention.
Knoles has recorded over 30 CD's of new music for labels such as: Echograph (two solo CDs), Sony Classics, Nonesuch, C.R.I., Barking Pumpkin, Voyager CD-ROM, New Albion, New World, Innova, Vergo, O.O. Discs, C.B.S., R.C.A., Relativity, and Crystal Records.