BIO

BIO

AMANDA JACOBS grew up in Macon, Georgia and earned her Bachelor of Music degree in piano performance from Wesleyan College.  Although trained as a classical pianist, Dr. Jacobs now works and creates in three artistic disciplines: Music, Theatre and the Visual Arts.  With a doctorate in Educational Psychology, she specializes in learning environments in the Arts.

As a composer/playwright, she is most recognized for her award-winning work on “AUSTEN'S PRIDE: A NEW MUSICAL OF PRIDE AND PREJUDICE”, which swept the New York Musical Theater Awards in 2011 as Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, A Musical, and included the coveted "Stage Entertainment Award", and "Most Promising Musical" award.  In 2014, the Jane Austen Society of North America named her  as representative for their International Visitors Program to the UK, where she composed worship music utilizing the three prayers of Jane Austen, organized and produced a concerts in Jane Austen Family churches.  Other works include  Learning How to Drown: A Musical” (The PiTCH/Finger Lakes Musical Theatre Festival, Goodspeed Writer's Colony).  LUCINDA, A Grown-up Fairytale Musical and The Up Side of Down with Y York (2015 Hormel Festival of New Plays and Musicals) .  Earlier collaborative works include “DANIEL: The Musical”, “Lily”, and “Truth in Beauty: A Shakespeare Sonnet Project”

In addition to these successes, Amanda composes classical works including THE SONG CYCLES OF BEACHY HEAD (Charlotte Smith's 731-line poem) and works for Chamber groups.  She won 1st Prize from the Long Island Arts Council (2009), the Marin Lutheran Church Competition (2009), Celebrating Grace (2009), NATS (2002), as well as international recognition for her “Mass for the Living” from the Sacred Arts Foundation (2010).  In 2014, she was a winner in the Words & Music Art Song competition for her setting of Emily Dickinson’s poem, “I would not paint a picture”.  

As an Academic, and throughout the pursuit of her PhD, Amanda concentrated her studies on the importance of the Arts in human development. She is active with the 5^th Avenue Theatre in Seattle as an evaluator for the 5^th Avenue Awards.  When giving workshops, she utilizes arts-based activities that target current educational concerns and address psycho-social issues of children and adolescents.  She utilizes evidence from the scientific literature to support her programs, including a program to promote positive attachment called  “Learning to Lullaby”, “Girl-Time”, which is a program for tween girls, and “Gender in the Music Classroom”.