Rising Stars: Meet Amber Dobbs of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Amber Dobbs.

Hi Amber, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Cobalt Strings was founded 15 years ago out of a love of music, a passion for performing, and an obsession with showing the world that strings instruments aren’t boring. For many people, when they thing of string instruments like violin and cello, they just think of classical music. But these instruments are wildly more versatile than the average person realizes. I started Cobalt Strings because, although I loved playing classical music (and I have a degree in classical violin performance,) I also wanted to play Stevie Wonder, Beyonce, Coldplay, the Beatles, and more. So I set out to create my own group. We’ve been performing together for 15 years now, and have loved every minute of it! We’ve played in concert halls and arenas, chapels and stadiums (No, seriously! We were invited to play at the Atlanta Falcons halftime show at Mercedes Benz stadium, which was super fun!) The foundation of our music is not just technical knowledge and years of performance experience. Our music is also built on love and a passion the reaches into every note we play.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The road has definitely included some bumps and potholes. There have been occupational injuries from playing our instruments all the time, financial setbacks due to the rising costs of doing business, and more. And of course, performing brings it’s own set of challenges and surprises! From breaking a string mid-song, to getting attacked by a bee in the middle of a wedding ceremony. It certainly hasn’t been easy, but it also hasn’t been boring!

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
One of the things that I love about Cobalt Strings is that I write a lot of our own sheet music! I love taking a modern song and translating it for string instruments. It’s time-consuming, but I absolutely love the creativity that it requires. You really have to think outside the box in order to take a modern song that was recorded with vocals, keys, guitars, drums, etc., and figure out how to re-write the music for violin, viola, and cello. I love the challenge of it, but I also love that it allows me to be creative. And I know that our version of a certain song is completely different from anyone else’s version! Being able write our own sheet music also means that I can accommodate pretty much any song request that a client has. I write new music for almost every single event that we play, which means that every event is truly getting one-of-a-kind music!

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
You can find us at www.CobaltStrings.com, or on social media @CobaltStrings!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.cobaltstrings.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/cobaltstrings
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/cobaltstrings