Amanda Whiting works from the U.K. as a harpist, composer, and educator whose practice spans classical and jazz idioms. Membership in jazz trumpeter Matthew Halsall’s Gondwana Orchestra has run alongside decades of activity inside Britain’s jazz and pop circles. Her support work has included Jamie Cullum and Dannii Minogue, while studio collaborations have encompassed DJ Yoda, Rebecca Vasmant, Jazzanova, Greg Foat, Heliocentrics, Chip Wickham, and additional artists. Three self-released projects preceded her late-2019 signing to Jazzman: the 2007 quartet album Something Borrowed... Something New..., the 2013 solo Butterflies, and 2015’s Memories. Jazz standards constituted the repertoire of her first Jazzman trio recording, Little Sunflower. The 2021 follow-up After Dark featured the same trio with Chip Wickham appearing as guest soloist. Lost in Abstraction, issued in 2022, received worldwide praise. A 2023 partnership with Cardiff-based DJ Don Leisure produced Beyond the Midnight Sun, and 2024 brought The Liminality of Her, her initial leader date for First Word.
Cardiff, Wales, is Whiting’s birthplace. Harp studies in the classical tradition began at age six after she encountered Harpo Marx on television. At sixteen she became the first harpist awarded a specialist-musician scholarship to Wells Cathedral Music School. In 1995 she claimed the National Eisteddfod’s annual performance prize—founded in 1176—against nearly six thousand entrants and also received the Nansi Richards Scholarship, reserved solely for harpists. Further training took place at Cardiff University under Caryl Thomas, culminating in a bachelor’s degree in classical music. Eclectic tastes have always defined her listening: early exposure centered on Debussy, Ravel, and Bach, while her teenage years brought hip-hop, Motown, and the recordings of Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong, Chick Corea, Miles Davis, D’Angelo, and Gretchen Parlato. Acceptance into Yehudi Menuhin’s Live Music Now! organization occurred in March 2000; her solo recital debut followed at London’s Purcell Room in 2002, and a 2003 appearance at St. David’s Hall, Cardiff, paired her with Joanne Thomas.
Reputation as an adaptable performer across genres led to a touring role alongside British jazz artist Jamie Cullum. Australian pop performer Dannii Minogue witnessed one of those shows and, impressed by Whiting’s playing, invited her in September 2006 to arrange and record a cover of the Christmas song “I’ll Be Home for Christmas,” issued as a charting single in Australia. Around the same period Whiting discovered the recordings of Dorothy Ashby and Alice Coltrane.
Signing with Jazzman in 2020 yielded the 10" LP Little Sunflower, a set of covers of Freddie Hubbard, Astor Piazzolla, and Duke Ellington that had been taped seven years earlier in Wales; the release earned critical notice and airplay throughout the U.K. and Europe. The following year brought the soul-jazz album After Dark, a trio recording containing ten originals plus “Time Stands Still” by Chip Wickham, who also contributed flute. European and American critics responded favorably, DJs created mixes and remixes, Rebecca Vasmant supplied a remix of the title track, and Nadya Albertsson added vocals. Between 2020 and 2022 Whiting placed twenty-two of her compositions in the Trinity Harp syllabus. Her second Jazzman album, Lost in Abstraction, appeared in 2022. Rooted in modal jazz, it comprised ten originals performed by her trio augmented by Wickham on saxophone and flute plus percussionist Baldo Verdu. Worldwide acclaim followed, opening main-stage slots at jazz festivals in England, Wales, and Europe; she also presented performances and lectures at the World Harp Congress. That August she joined the Rebecca Vasmant ensemble at the WeOutHere Festival and subsequently toured the U.K. and Paris.
The year 2023 saw a collaboration with Cardiff DJ and producer Don Leisure on the limited-edition, six-track EP Beyond the Midnight Sun, which featured guest vocalist Deborah Jordan of the vanguard jazz ensemble Panacea on two tracks. Additional remixed singles drawn from Lost in Abstraction surfaced late in the year—“Where Would We Be” (by Chris Cracknell feat. PEACH & Mat Lloyd), “Too Much” (by Kaidi Tatham), and “Discarded” (by Scrimshire)—alongside a five-track edition of the album that incorporated those remixes and two bonus versions. February 2024 marked the release of “Intertwined” (feat. PEACH), Whiting’s first single for First Word Records under Universal Music distribution. The full album The Liminality of Her followed in March; the funky, soul-jazz-oriented, beat-driven collection featured her quartet alongside Wickham and PEACH, was recorded in Wales, and was produced by Cracknell.
