Born in Seoul,
South Korea, Amber Field grew up with her adoptive European American mother
and Taiwanese American sister in Korea, Nepal, Liberia, and the United
States. She started playing piano when she was five years old,
and placed in numerous competitions. At Pomona College, she studied abroad
in India, focusing on Hindi and development studies, and eventually
received a B.A. in Indian History.
After college,
Amber moved to San Francisco and began volunteering and working
at non-profits and community organizations. San Francisco has
been her home base ever since, and as a community organizer, she
has worked in the arenas of economic and racial justice, women's
issues, and health education. In 2001, she helped win a living
wage at the Port of Oakland.
Always an
adventurer and explorer, she left to live in Europe and Asia for
two years in 1998. On this trip, she worked on organic farms,
studied permaculture, wrote an ethnography on the Iban (former
headhunters of Borneo), and volunteered for various projects supporting
indigenous rights and cultures.
Along
the way, she came into contact with meditation and yoga, two important
practices in her healing journey. On that same trip, she began
playing the didgeridoo, Arabic tambourine, djembe, and tabla.
She composed her own songs and discovered the healing effects
of transmitting/transforming her emotions through sound. Amber also started to make didgeridoos out of bamboo, and plays on her own hand-carved didges. Amber
moved to India and lived there from 2002-2004 studying tabla and
esraj (Indian classical music) in Varanasi under Kishor Mishra
and later at Visva Bharati University under Nikhil Ranjan Dhibar
and Sandip Ghosh.
After a near-death
experience with dengue fever in 2004, Amber was inspired more
than ever to continue down the path of love and healing. She moved
to Korea to learn about her birth culture and share Indian and
fusion music with Koreans. She started two band projects, Anokha
and Bijly, that soon performed at festivals all over the country.
Amber returned to her home base of San Francisco in September 2006 after many years abroad deepening her spiritual and musical practices. Amber’s main creative play/work is her one-woman multi-media show that addresses transracial/transnational adoption, immigration, queer identity, and personal/societal transformation. Her show incorporates movement, acting, storytelling, singing, spoken word, didgeridoo and percussion, and projected visual images. Amber also performs didgeridoo and drumming in Bay Area yoga classes and kirtan with her band Jagadamba.
Her short film "Jagadamba, Mother of the Universe" debuts June 2008 at the Queer Women of Color Film Festival at the Brava Theater. It explores her personal experience as a queer transracial adoptee and her healing journey through music. The documentary features concert footage, interviews, photos of her childhood, and nature scenes. "Jagadamba, Mother of the Universe" will screen in various film festivals in 2008 and 2009.
Amber incorporates
all of her diverse musical influences, styles, and instruments
in a fresh, unique, energetic way. The consummate multi-instrumentalist and traveler, she weaves a beautiful tapestry of Indian, African, Arabian, and Western sounds. Her music reflects
that the whole world is her home, and most importantly, home is
in her heart.
Amber fully
believes that we can all be the change we want to see in the world,
and that love is the supreme healing energy. She practices spiritual and social activism through her music that includes positive messages of transformation and healing, lyrics with a focus on social justice, uplifting melodies and rhythms, and playing for benefits/causes that she supports. In particular, Amber wants to encourage and support
more women and queer women of color to become involved in music.
She is available for private didgeridoo sound healings, music lessons, kirtan services,
collaboration with djs, and solo and band performances at weddings, parties,
fundraisers, and events. Contact her for studio work and booking her one-woman show.
