"[R]ainwater-fresh soprano…" Chicago Tribune

[Short bio below]

Amanda DeBoer Bartlett, DMA is a soprano specializing in contemporary classical chamber music, vocal ensemble music, songwriting, and folk music. She is a founding member of Quince Ensemble, a contemporary and experimental treble voice ensemble, and Hasco Duo, an experimental improvisation and songwriting project. She is also a member of the award-winning and internationally recognized Ensemble Dal Niente. She regularly performs her original songs solo, with her duo partner Jesse Langen, or with full band at clubs and festivals around the country.

Bartlett maintains an active national and international performance schedule. Highlights include the Walla Walla Chamber Music Festival in Washington, the Foro Internacional de Música Nueva in Mexico City, the Kody Festival in Poland, Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Opera Omaha, Miller Theatre at Columbia University, and the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C.

Her debut album of original songs, The Bones Still Glow, was released in February of 2023, and her sophomore album, Braided Together, was released June 6, 2025, both on Caillonia Records. Along with her solo work, Bartlett is featured on albums with Ensemble Dal Niente, Quince Ensemble, Holly Herndon, Deerhoof, Timothy Daisy, Hasco Duo, and more.

In 2014 she founded Omaha Under the Radar, an annual four-day experimental performance festival, year-round concert series, and educational program which presented over 400 individual artists in its nine seasons.

As a leading interpreter of new and experimental vocal works, she regularly works with living composers, commissioning, developing, and workshopping new works with extended vocal techniques, new notation, and other experimental practices. Her research centers on the pedagogy of nontraditional and extended vocal techniques in contemporary classical music, including extensive research on ingression phonation.

Born and raised in Omaha, NE, Bartlett received a Bachelor of Music from DePaul University, a Master of Music from the University at Buffalo, and a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Contemporary Music from Bowling Green State University. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Voice at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts.

Short Bio

Amanda DeBoer Bartlett is a Chicago-based contemporary classical soprano and alt-folk songwriter. She's been described as a "rainwater fresh soprano" (Chicago Tribune) and “galvanizing” (WBUR Boston) with “an astonishing display of vocal nimbleness” (New York Times). As a member of Ensemble Dal Niente and Quince Ensemble, she has ushered hundreds of new works into the world, and she continues to commission and support living composers. Her songwriting practice is shaped by her Nebraska upbringing, summers spent with her grandmother listening to country music legends, a deep love of Woody Guthrie, and an early obsession with Bernadette Peters.