Amy Tobin is an Oakland-based performer, vocalist, and writer. She sings
a cappella, with electronics, and with full bands in clubs and theatres,
and is devoted to a hybrid performance style that draws on experimental
and rock music, cabaret and theatre.
Amy created and performs The
Esther Show, a cabaret rock opera and modern interpretation
of the biblical Book of Esther. The show has toured the U.S. and reinvented
the Jewish holiday of Purim since 2002.
Amy is also
the Executive Director
of the David Brower Center,
an innovative green building with offices for environmental and social
action organizations and a gallery, theater, conference center, and
Gather restaurant.
In 2004,
Amy was commissioned to compose and perform music for the poem “Praise”
by Ilya Kaminsky. The composition is featured on Bridge
Across the Blue, a compilation CD featuring stories of immigration
through spoken word and music.
In 2006,
Amy and drummer and producer Kevin
Carnes created the band A
Little Friction and released the CD When Sparks Fly. Amy
also released the EP 4 Choices
in 2003.
Other projects
include composing and co-writing Lilith, a musical, with Synaesthetic
Theatre founder Joy Leonard (1996); singing with San Francisco band
The Beanweevils (1999); and performing as a member of the intercultural
spoken-word collective Dhaia Tribe (2002).
As a producer,
Amy has created multi-media arts events throughout the Bay Area for
13 years, supporting the work of emerging artists and generally doing
anything possible to promote live performance. She received the Joshua
Venture fellowship for Jewish social entrepreneurs in 2001, and was
the founding Artistic Director of The Hub at the JCCSF.
Amy was featured
as one of the “Heeb Hundred” in that magazine’s Spring
2005 issue, and as a member of the "Forward 50" by the Forward
weekly newspaper in 2002. She has consulted with small and mid-sized
arts and other nonprofit organizations.
Amy is a
proud graduate of the Experimental Theatre Wing at NYU's Tisch School
of the Arts.