Al Petteway and Amy White

About the Artist

Al Petteway began his professional music career at the age of eleven. He played guitar, drums and string bass with a variety of rock and folk acts in the Washington D.C. area during the 1960s. In 1970 he went to school to study String Bass and Music Composition; during that time he performed with the Old Dominion University Madrigal Singers, the schoolÆs Jazz and Symphonic Bands, and the Norfolk Ballet Orchestra. The next few years found him performing with night club dance bands until 1977 when he took a job with The National Geographic Society, becoming Supervisor of Picture Editing for the SocietyÆs Image Collection.

Petteway and mandolinist Akira Otsuka became ôhouse musiciansö for The Birchmere in Alexandria, where they backed up many nationally-known folk and bluegrass acts. They were also founding members of ôGrazz Matazz,ö which became one of the premier ôNew Acousticö acts of the time performing a mix of bluegrass, jazz and rock styles on acoustic instruments. Petteway has performed with Peter Rowan, Debi Smith, The Smith Singers, Grace Griffith, Susan Graham White, Cheryl Wheeler, Jonathan Edwards, Tom Paxton and others. The recipient of numerous music awards, Petteway left National Geographic in 1995 to become a full-time musician.

Amy White is a multi-instrumentalist whose performances regularly feature piano, mandolin, guitar, Ashiko Drum, percussion, bodhran, and even the hand-whistle. She began composing music in early childhood and performing in her early teens with dance theater ensembles at Washington area universities, concert series, and arts festivals. She won her first award for piano composition from the Virginia Music TeacherÆs Association at the age of eleven, and has continued to receive acclaim. In 1995 White received an award from the Maryland State Arts Council for her solo instrumental performance on piano. She received the same award for her solo mandolin performance in 1998. Her debut recording of original compositions was named ôBest New Age Albumö in 1996 by the Washington Area Music Association. Over the years she appeared in concert with a world-beat ensemble, recorded and performed with two a capella groups at Kenyon College, and performed as a soloist and composer at Dance Recitals. Also a visual artist, White enjoys stone carving, stained glass, hand-built ceramics and silver-casting. She and Al Petteway were married September 21, 1996, in Shadyside, Maryland. Petteway & White were January 1999 Artists-in-Residence for the Kennedy CenterÆs Millennium Stage.