Amanda Ross

Assistant Professor of Music
Applied Trumpet
Coordinator of Jazz, Director of the OU Jazz Band
[email protected]

Amanda Ross, Ph.D. serves as Assistant Professor of Trumpet, Director of the Oakland University Jazz Band, and Coordinator of the Jazz Area at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. Ross maintains an active playing career as Principal Trumpet of the Oakland Symphony Orchestra and regularly performs with orchestras throughout Southeastern Michigan. In 2025, she joined NewStream Brass, an eight-piece brass and percussion ensemble dedicated to the performance of jazz, commercial and classical works.

As a soloist, Ross was recently featured at the 2025 International Women’s Brass Conference and the 2024 International Trumpet Guild Conference, where she performed new works for unaccompanied trumpet and trumpet with electronics, including “Did You See the Dragon?” by Remi Inari and “ALMANAC” by Corey Smith. Ross’ performance of “Did You See the Dragon?” can be heard on Inari’s 2024 release, “if you believe in the shadow…,” which is available on all streaming platforms.

She has performed and recorded with chamber ensembles across the country, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Calypsus Brass, Detroit Chamber Winds and the ÆPEX Contemporary Performance. In 2022, she participated in the recording of John Luther Adams’ “Sila: The Breath of the World,” which was nominated for Best Orchestral Performance at the Grammy Awards. 

With the International Contemporary Ensemble, she was an ensemble member for premieres by George Lewis and Alvin Lucier. During her graduate studies at the University of Michigan, she performed with the University of Michigan Faculty Brass Quintet, and Michigan Chamber Players. She has also participated in chamber festivals worldwide, including Ensemble Evolution, Strange Beautiful Music, Soundscape Exchange in Maccagno, Italy and Bar Harbor Brass Institute.

Ross is co-founder of Girlnoise, a mixed-chamber ensemble committed to celebrating the artistry of women in contemporary chamber music. Girlnoise’s broad repertoire includes original compositions, commissions and arrangements of works spanning artists such as St. Vincent, Olivier Messiaen, Phoebe Bridgers and Giovanni Palestrina. The ensemble has premiered original works by composers Annika Socolofsky, Nadine Dyskant-Miller, Tanner Porter and Clay Gonzalez, among others, as well as compositions written by ensemble members. Girlnoise has been featured at the New Music Gathering, Elastic Arts in Evanston, Illinois and the University of Michigan Museum of Art.

Ross’s research focuses on making music performance and education more equitable, accessible, and diverse. In February 2019, she began a long-term research project centered on representation in trumpet pedagogy and performance. Her article, “The Impact of Representation in the Arts: How Racism is Manifested in the Classical Trumpet World,” was published in the January 2021 edition of the “International Trumpet Guild Journal” after peer review and approval by the editorial board.

Ross earned a Doctor of Musical Arts in Trumpet from the University of Michigan in May 2020. She also earned graduate degrees in Trumpet and Chamber Music at the University of Michigan and completed a Bachelor of Music in Trumpet with a Jazz Emphasis at Baldwin Wallace University. Her primary trumpet instructors were William Campbell, Robert Sullivan, Tom Booth, Jason Bergman, Jack Brndiar, and Jack Sutte. She has previously held teaching positions at the University of Michigan as Guest Instructor of Trumpet and Graduate Student Assistant.