Amy Sanchez maintains a diverse career in Los Angeles as a full-time freelance musician. She was appointed Lecturer of Horn at UCLA in 2014 and is proud of fostering a supportive horn community and alumni network.
In addition to frequent performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Pacific Symphony, LA Chamber Orchestra, LA Opera, and San Diego Symphony, Amy is 2nd Horn in the Fresno Philharmonic, Riverside Philharmonic, and has performed with most of the major regional orchestras throughout California.
An active studio musician, Amy can be heard on prominent films such as Avatar 2, Elemental, Frozen 2, Lightyear, Incredibles 2, Coco, Star Wars Rogue One, Moana, Star Trek Beyond, and Jurassic World, and has recorded on a wide range of albums with Jennifer Lopez, Kendrick Lamar, Dr. Dre, Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews Band, Kamasi Washington, Florence and the Machine, Idina Menzel, Michael Buble, X Ambassadors, and Half Alive, among others. She has recorded on-screen for Carrie Underwood’s Holiday Special, ‘My Gift’, American Idol, and The Voice. Amy’s brass trio, 3 brass released their second album, ‘Christmas at Home’ in 2020, and she can be heard with LA’s Grammy nominated modern music collective Wild Up for their 2023 release of the music of Julius Eastman, Vol. 3. Amy recently recorded for an upcoming documentary about Henry Mancini with John Williams, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Vinnie Colaiuta, and Arturo Sandoval.
Amy performs live in a variety of genres and has played Coachella, the Hollywood Bowl, and on the Academy Awards, Grammy’s, and Game Awards with artists Labrinth, Zendaya, Billie Eilish, Sia, Hozier, Dave Grohl, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer, Ariana Grande, Dave Matthews Band, Common, Kamasi Washington, and Andrea Bocelli. She also feels comfortable in jazz, latin, rock, hip-hop and other styles, performing and recording with Vardan Ovsepian’s Chamber Ensemble (VOCE), Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s Suite for Ma Dukes, Marcel Camargo’s The Brazil You Never Heard, and the DaKah Hip Hop Orchestra.
A lover of travel, Amy has toured with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Pacific Symphony, had the opportunity to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic, was Principal Horn of the International Chamber Orchestra of Puerto Rico for 6 years, 2nd horn with the Pageant of the Masters Orchestra in Laguna Beach for 5 summer seasons, has performed with the Hawaii Symphony in Honolulu, and still travels to play with the Juneau Symphony and Sitka Brass in Alaska. She joined the prestigious Strings Festival Brass Ensemble in Steamboat Springs, CO in the summer of 2023. At the start of her performance career, Amy was the horn soloist with the 1st National Tour of the Broadway show Blast, performing throughout the United States, Canada, and Japan. Other international performances have taken her to India, Israel, China, South Africa, Mexico, and throughout Europe.
Prior to her career at UCLA, Amy was the horn teacher for YOLA/Harmony Project, a teaching artist for the LA Philharmonic, served as sabbatical Horn Professor at Ithaca College in NY, and taught at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan.
In an effort to combine music with other interests, Amy partners with the South African non-profit Nkombe Rhino, promoting wildlife and wild-land conservation through tourism, and raising awareness and funding through music with her brass ensemble ‘Horns for Rhinos’. She founded a supporting 501(c)3 organization in the US, Nkombe Wild, in early 2021. Amy developed a passion for Alaskan travel and conservation after photographing coastal brown bears while camping in Katmai National Park, and is a licensed private pilot, aspiring to fly floatplanes in the awe-inspiring backcountry of Alaska.
