Amanda Witman

Upcoming Events | Pub Sings | About Me | Contact Me

From consultant to musician in the blink of an eye! I specialize in healthy balance and well-roundedness.

Amanda Witman smiling and holding an English concertina at the 2018 Northeast Squeeze-In — Photo Credit: Stewart Dean

About Amanda

Amanda Witman is a singer, song leader, and arts event organizer in Brattleboro, Vermont. Her love of harmony infuses her singing and playing. She also helps facilitate welcoming, community-based music opportunities where players, singers, and listeners at all levels are encouraged and supported.

She leads the monthly Brattleboro Pub Sing and the bi-annual Brattleboro Ballad Sing, and helps organize local pub sessions and the annual RiverJam Romp weekend. She sings with Vermont-based quartet Big Woods Voices, performing detailed, original art arrangements of poetry and world music; performs locally with friends; and occasionally performs solo, both unaccompanied and self-accompanied with English concertina and guitar.

News from Amanda

I’m heading out momentarily to one of my very favorite annual events, the 4th annual Connecticut Sea Music Festival June 6-9 in Essex, CT. This year I’ll be singing both formally and informally on Saturday and Sunday as one of this year’s “Deckhands,” which is both a pleasure and an honor. This festival is the reincarnation of the legendary Mystic Seaport Music Festival and it lives up to that reputation. Hope to see you in Essex!

Later in June, I am thrilled to be heading to the Old Songs Festival. No, not as a performer, but to do something I find nearly as exciting and fun—working as part of the Stage Management Crew on the Main Stage. There is no denying the magic of being seated in the audience at a good show, but I’ve always been happiest backstage. So I’m glad to have the chance to do that for the first time this year. I am looking forward to seeing many friends on and off stage at Old Songs.

This summer, I will be on staff at CDSS English Week at Pinewoods from August 2-9. I’ll convene a daily class for singers, lead a relaxed afternoon song session, play concertina for Morris dancers, and other fun things! The week is geared primarily for those who enjoy English Country Dancing, but there is plenty of time and opportunity to explore adjacent traditions, and singing is a much-loved part of the week. It’s exciting to be part of the CDSS world!

Registration for the 4th annual RiverJam Romp is underway! The Romp is Friday, September 5 through Sunday September 7, 2025 at beautiful Potash Hill (the former Marlboro College campus). This event is close to my heart, as I’m one of the founders, along with Peter Siegel and Louisa Engle. There will be singing, jamming, dancing, workshops, connections, amazing food, and (of course) romping. As usual, we’ve hired an impressive array of friends and neighbors and invited all the rest to join us. We are looking forward to some first-rate singing, jamming, performing, and all-around hanging out in September!

From September to May, I lead a Traditional & Folk Singers’ Workshop at the Brattleboro Music Center one evening a week from 6-7ish. Participants share songs they’re working on or excited about, often “in progress” and unpolished; I teach songs here and there; and we talk about anything related to singing that comes up as part of the learning process. If you’re local and want to attend one night to see if it’s for you, let me know and you will be welcome!

I also offer one-on-one support sessions for those who want encouragement in developing confidence in their singing. Contact me directly to schedule, or contact the BMC for more information.

The Brattleboro Pub Sing is alive and well, gathering from 3-5 pm on the 3rd Saturday of every month at the Tower Bar in Brattleboro, Vermont. All are welcome, and anyone is welcome to lead a song from memory with a good chorus for everyone to join in on. No experience or confidence is required. If you’re anywhere near Brattleboro, come sing!

Twice a year, in March and November, the Brattleboro Ballad Sing convenes on a Sunday at the Brattleboro Music Center for a couple of glorious hours of ballad swapping. The next one is on March 15, 2025 from 1-3 pm. Contact brattleboroballadsing@gmail.com for more info!

My a cappella quartet, Big Woods Voices, celebrates its 10-year anniversary this coming fall! To celebrate, we’ll be doing a special anniversary concert at the Brattleboro Music Center on November 9th. We will also be performing this fall in Marlborough, NH; Easthampton, MA; Chester, VT; and Williamsville, VT. See our website for more info (updated as details are finalized), and join our mailing list for announcements.

We are also very proud of the CD we released in 2022. Called “Poetry in Harmony,” it features poetry beautifully arranged for our quartet in original compositions by Will Danforth. You can stream it on Spotify, or purchase it on Bandcamp or direct from us if you’re local.
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The Friends of the Greenfield Dance, Inc. sponsored a series of pub sings at the Greenfield Grange over the past year. It was an honor and a pleasure to lead singing in “our” beautiful Grange. This was a limited series, but the intent is for more singing to happen there along with all the dancing. Let the Friends know what you’d like to see happen!

Cate Clifford and I shared a lovely house concert in April hosted by our ear friend Kim Wallach. Cate and I have been weaving in and out of each other’s singing lives for years, delighting in sharing harmonies at pub and shanty sings, in concert audiences, at parties, and tucked in quiet corners at camp. We are thrilled for the opportunity to join forces and perform together! Hope to do it again before long.

Last summer, I had the opportunity to spend a week at John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, North Carolina, taking part in Dance Musicians’ Week. I finally understand what the fuss is about! The Folk School is a strong model for inclusive, non-competitive, community-based teaching and learning. How wonderful to experience its magic. I brought some magic home with me and plan to share it liberally!

The Daily Antidote of Song is an absolutely wonderful longstanding zoom-sing (4 years old and counting) that brings a variety of interesting song leaders together with singers around the country and across the world. Everyone is welcome, participation is free, everyone matters, and it’s a full half-hour of connection and song. Right up my alley! I had the opportunity to be part of a couple of past Daily Antidotesalong with a lovely set of Brattleboro neighbors. Many thanks to Jo Rasi and Carpe Diem Arts for keeping this gem active!

Every year, I have a ton of fun at the Brattleboro Music School’s Northern Roots Festival, always on the last weekend of January. In 2024, I had the great honor of performing solo in the evening concert. If you missed it, you can catch it on YouTube: Northern Roots Festival 2024.

Mount Holyoke College’s Folk Music & Dance Society had Samuel Foucher and me co-lead a couple of pub sings in 2024. It was so much fun! We saw (as we often do) that many students have sing-along-able songs in their back pockets and don’t even realize it. We hope we’ll have a chance to sing with them again.

If you’re lucky, you can sometimes catch me singing informally on Sunday mornings with Shawn Magee and Peter Siegel at the Fire Arts Cafe on Route 30 in West Brattleboro. (Have a little crooning with your coffee and croissant?) Bring your musical self if you want to join in. Time varies, but you can often catch us warbling and jamming sometime between 9-11.

Sadly, after Tony Barrand and I spent the better part of a decade co-leading the Brattleboro Pub Sing and three and a half years as a Vermont Folklife Center master-and-apprentice team, that time ended when Tony passed away unexpectedly on January 29, 2022. I am very grateful to the VFC for their continued support of our work. Tony’s mentoring was unfailingly gracious and encouraging. He shared much with me, and I look forward to passing it on.

We’ve sung together many a time, and so will we yet.