Amanda is a founding member and clarinetist of the Now Hear Ensemble. They are currently based in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, CA.

Now Hear Ensemble’s goal is to combine the intimacy of the classical concert experience and their fascination with contemporary theater, video art, electronic music, and installation art. The members of the ensemble embrace contemporary music and pop culture because they believe a cross-genre approach leads to new territory for creativity. Now Hear Ensemble was founded in Santa Barbara, California in early 2012, and was formerly the Resident Ensemble at the University of California Santa Barbara Department of Music. They are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

The ensemble has performed at renowned venues such as the Roy and Edna Disney CalArts Theater (REDCAT), the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santa Barbara, the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) at Stanford University, the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) at UC Berkeley, the Conrad Prebys Music Center at UC San Diego, the Center for New Music in San Francisco, the Fisher Museum at the University of Southern California, and the Carlsbad Music Festival. In 2013, the ensemble was featured on the BBC Radio 3 show “Late Junction,” where music from their album Made in California was broadcast to a worldwide audience.

The Now Hear Ensemble has received generous support from the University of California Institute for Research in the Arts (UCIRA) to fund collaborations with Swedish composer Anders Lind and American composer Dan VanHassel, and from Avaloch Farm Music Institute to work in residence towards various pieces and projects.

Now Hear Ensemble was founded by:

• Amanda Kritzberg – clarinet

• Adriane Hill – flute

• Anthony Paul Garcia – percussion

• Jonathan Morgan – viola

• Federico Llach – double bass

• Joel Hunt - saxophones

Check out the album trailer for the “Made in California” project by clicking here (video by Gaby Goldberg).