Amanda Somerville-Scharf
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Born on: 07.03.1979
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Amanda Somerville is an American singer-songwriter and vocal coach, known primarily for her work with many European symphonic metal bands. Her voice has a wide range, however she has said herself that her tessitura is in the alto range.
She was born in Flushing, Michigan, attended Flushing Senior High School, graduating a full year early and won a scholarship for graduating with high honors to the University of Michigan in Flint, Michigan, where she majored in psychology. Somerville moved to Wolfsburg, Germany in 1999 where she's resided, working mainly in Germany and the Netherlands.
On August 19, 2013, she announced that she was engaged to be married to After Forever's former guitarist Sander Gommans, and the pair took the plunge in July 2014.
Somerville has written and recorded with bands such as After Forever, Edguy, Kamelot, Epica, Avantasia, and has produced two solo albums. Her solo releases to date are primarily soft and elegant pop rock with some hard rock, folk and soul influences. Amanda herself wrote and contributed instrumentally to all of the songs on her solo albums with only one exception being "Out" from the album Windows (written by Sascha Paeth).
She collaborated with several of these metal bands alongside producers Sascha Paeth and (#invalid artist link ID#), which took her to collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Robert Hunecke-Rizzo co-writing with the symphonic heavy/power metal opera Aina. Later she agreed to a similar collaboration with guitarist Sander Gommans (After Forever), providing vocals and lyrical concept for the project HDK. In 2008, she toured America with Dutch heavy metal band Epica, while regular vocalist Simone Simons recovered from a staph infection.
In 2010, she collaborated with Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween singer) on a musical project entitled Kiske / Somerville. The band is a melodic metal act put together by Frontiers Records, as similar project as Allen - Lande. Songwriting and production duties were handled by Primal Fear bassist Mat Sinner with collaboration by guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Allen - Lande, also from Primal Fear), Sander Gommans, Jimmy Kre-ić and Amanda herself.
Their first single, "Silence" was released on August 20, 2010. Their self-titled album was released on September 24, 2010 by Frontiers Records, after the single accompanied by a music video for "Silence". A music video was also made for the song "If I Had One Wish". Somerville contributed creatively to the album by writing three songs: "A Thousand Suns", "Arise" and "Set Afire", all co-written with Sander Gommans.
In 2011, Amanda finally released her first heavy metal-oriented project called Trillium with the record company Frontiers Records. The project has contributions by Sascha Paeth, (#invalid artist link ID#), Sander Gommans and a guest appearance of Jørn Lande on a duet vocal track with Amanda.
In 2014, a new HDK album called Serenades of the Netherworld was released, featuring Amanda and Geert Kroes on vocals and once again produced and composed by Sander Gommans. It was also the year Amanda and Sander got married. In addition, Amanda was part of a metal opera project from the Middle East, produced by Lebanese guitarist Amadeus Awad, with an album called The Book of Gates. She plays the part of the Queen of the Nile.
Official Website
show more
Amanda Somerville is an American singer-songwriter and vocal coach, known primarily for her work with many European symphonic metal bands. Her voice has a wide range, however she has said herself that her tessitura is in the alto range.
She was born in Flushing, Michigan, attended Flushing Senior High School, graduating a full year early and won a scholarship for graduating with high honors to the University of Michigan in Flint, Michigan, where she majored in psychology. Somerville moved to Wolfsburg, Germany in 1999 where she's resided, working mainly in Germany and the Netherlands.
On August 19, 2013, she announced that she was engaged to be married to After Forever's former guitarist Sander Gommans, and the pair took the plunge in July 2014.
Somerville has written and recorded with bands such as After Forever, Edguy, Kamelot, Epica, Avantasia, and has produced two solo albums. Her solo releases to date are primarily soft and elegant pop rock with some hard rock, folk and soul influences. Amanda herself wrote and contributed instrumentally to all of the songs on her solo albums with only one exception being "Out" from the album Windows (written by Sascha Paeth).
She collaborated with several of these metal bands alongside producers Sascha Paeth and (#invalid artist link ID#), which took her to collaborate with multi-instrumentalist Robert Hunecke-Rizzo co-writing with the symphonic heavy/power metal opera Aina. Later she agreed to a similar collaboration with guitarist Sander Gommans (After Forever), providing vocals and lyrical concept for the project HDK. In 2008, she toured America with Dutch heavy metal band Epica, while regular vocalist Simone Simons recovered from a staph infection.
In 2010, she collaborated with Michael Kiske (ex-Helloween singer) on a musical project entitled Kiske / Somerville. The band is a melodic metal act put together by Frontiers Records, as similar project as Allen - Lande. Songwriting and production duties were handled by Primal Fear bassist Mat Sinner with collaboration by guitarist Magnus Karlsson (Allen - Lande, also from Primal Fear), Sander Gommans, Jimmy Kre-ić and Amanda herself.
Their first single, "Silence" was released on August 20, 2010. Their self-titled album was released on September 24, 2010 by Frontiers Records, after the single accompanied by a music video for "Silence". A music video was also made for the song "If I Had One Wish". Somerville contributed creatively to the album by writing three songs: "A Thousand Suns", "Arise" and "Set Afire", all co-written with Sander Gommans.
In 2011, Amanda finally released her first heavy metal-oriented project called Trillium with the record company Frontiers Records. The project has contributions by Sascha Paeth, (#invalid artist link ID#), Sander Gommans and a guest appearance of Jørn Lande on a duet vocal track with Amanda.
In 2014, a new HDK album called Serenades of the Netherworld was released, featuring Amanda and Geert Kroes on vocals and once again produced and composed by Sander Gommans. It was also the year Amanda and Sander got married. In addition, Amanda was part of a metal opera project from the Middle East, produced by Lebanese guitarist Amadeus Awad, with an album called The Book of Gates. She plays the part of the Queen of the Nile.