Amy Zuidema

Originating from the shores of West Michigan, Amy Zuidema (she/they) is a contemporary clarinetist, improviser, interdisciplinary creator, educator, and advocate dedicated to expanding the sonic possibilities and repertoire of the bass clarinet. As a veteran and dedicated mental-health advocate, she explores presence after trauma through trauma-informed work centered on resilience, compassion, and human connection. After years of classical training and six years of service in the 338th Army Reserve Band, Amy shifted her focus toward contemporary creation and mental-health advocacy. As a Frank Huntington Beebe Scholar, she pursued advanced studies in the Netherlands, specializing in contemporary bass-clarinet performance and completing a master's thesis titled Cultivating Emotional Safe Spaces for Creation & Innovation. Amy places emotional well-being at the center of her creative practice and works to cultivate spaces in which vulnerability can become a catalyst for innovation and collective growth. Her interdisciplinary projects incorporate text, electronics, imagery, and other media to create grounded storytelling that invites shared moments of presence, compassion, and reflection while leaving room for audience members to bring their own narratives to complex but universal emotional experiences. She is an active soloist, collaborator, guest artist, and speaker throughout the United States and Western Europe and is a Royal Global Artist.

Amy Zuidema performs on an older-model Royal Global Firebird Low C Bass clarinet with a stock barrel and a Vandoren B50 mouthpiece; she also uses a Vandoren M13 Lyre on soprano clarinet. She values the Firebird's comfortable, thoughtfully designed keywork, resonant wooden bell, beautiful high register, and flexible, expressive altissimo. She considers the quality exceptional for the price and appreciates that Royal Global makes instruments comparable to models costing twice as much, creating a more accessible option for emerging artists. Amy first encountered Royal Global through visiting representatives at Ithaca College. They helped her find an excellent instrument at a price she could manage and overhauled it themselves. She purchased her Firebird while saving as a graduate assistant and clarinetist in the Army Reserve Band, without realizing how profoundly it would shape her career. The instrument made her goals possible: it opened the door to study abroad, helped her develop her artistry and establish her voice as a contemporary clarinetist, and enabled her to build a career making the music she loves. As an emerging artist in a field often made exclusive by the cost of instruments and training, she deeply values Royal Global's commitment to making top-tier instruments significantly more accessible to students and professionals.