Following several phases of writing and recording, during which Amos has since asserted that the band lost their musical edge and direction due to interference from record executives, in July 1988, the Y Kant Tori Read's self-titled debut album was released. In addition to Amos, the group was composed of Steve Caton (who would later play guitars on all her subsequent albums until 1999), drummer Matt Sorum, bass player Brad Cobb and, for a short time, keyboardist Jim Tauber. In 1986, Amos formed a music group, Y Kant Tori Read, the name of which was a reference to her days at the Peabody Conservatory, where she was able to play songs on her piano by ear, but was never successful at sight reading. At age 21, Amos moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career after several years performing on the piano bar circuit of the D.C. ![]() Before this she performed under her middle name, Ellen, but permanently adopted Tori after a friend's boyfriend told her it suited her. The song won the contest and became her first single, released as a 7" single pressed locally for family and friends during 1980 with another Amos-penned composition as a B-side, "Walking With You". ![]() As a senior at Richard Montgomery High School, she co-wrote "Baltimore" with her brother Mike Amos for a competition involving the Baltimore Orioles. At the age of 13 she began playing at gay bars and piano bars, chaperoned by her father.Īmos first came to local notice by winning a county teen talent contest in 1977, singing a song called "More Than Just a Friend". In 1972, The Amos family moved to Silver Spring, Maryland, where her father became pastor of the Good Shepherd United Methodist church. Amos has asserted that she lost the scholarship because of her interest in rock and popular music, coupled with her dislike for reading from sheet music. Her scholarship was discontinued at age 11 and she was asked to leave. By age five, she had begun composing instrumental pieces on piano and, while living in Rockville, Maryland, she won a full scholarship to the Preparatory Division of the Peabody Conservatory of Music. When she was two, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland, where she began to play the piano. She has been nominated for several awards, including 8 Grammy Award nominations.Īmos was born in Newton, North Carolina, the daughter of Mary Ellen and the Reverend Edison Amos. to date.Īs of 2005, Amos had sold 12 million albums worldwide. Some of her charting singles include "Crucify", "Silent All These Years", "God", "Cornflake Girl", "Caught a Lite Sneeze", "Professional Widow", "Spark", "1000 Oceans", and "A Sorta Fairytale", her most commercially successful single in the U.S. ![]() She was also noteworthy early in her solo career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument. ![]() Amos originally served as the lead singer of 1980s synthpop group Y Kant Tori Read, and as a solo artist was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s. She is a classically trained musician and possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range. Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos August 22, 1963) is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer.
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