Amia      Korman

Amia Korman fell in love with the power of a great lyric before they could so much as read or write. Born in the Greater Philadelphia area to an unabashedly musical family, Amia’s introduction to song and performance was a speedy and warm one. From an early age, Amia could be found giving living room performances of Les Misérables (all the parts, duh), outlining musicals-to-be in their school notebooks, and playing dress up with an actor’s intentionality. 

 

Their mother’s background in opera & concert piano coupled with their father’s rock roots and colossal record collection taught Amia the value of concerning oneself with a wide diversity of style, genre and discipline. Amia was drawn to classic musicals like Gypsy and Meet Me in St. Louis as much as to the music of Emmylou Harris and Aretha Franklin. As Amia progressed through school and further developed their passion through professional regional theatre, school plays and musicals, jazz band, choir, and dance classes (especially ballet), multiple dualities of purpose began to take shape for them— performing and writing, classic and contemporary, live theatre and recorded music. 

 

This emerging desire for balance and expansion in Amia’s artistry led them to the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington, where they studied both Opera/Voice Performance and Musical Theatre under the tutelage of Heidi Grant Murphy. While at Jacobs, Amia performed in Into The Woods, Cabaret, 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, The Well of Horniness, Sweeney Todd, and Falsettos, sang as a member of the renowned NOTUS Contemporary Vocal Ensemble, and directed 7 student productions including 3 original plays of their own.  

 

After graduating from IU, Amia spent a year in Chicago, where they portrayed Éponine in Les Misérables at Uptown Music Theater and Caroline in I and You at Citadel Theatre. Critics praised Amia's performance in Les Misérables as a "star-making turn" that "will be forever remembered by audiences who see this production." The summer following, Amia made their Ohio Light Opera debut as Julie Jordan in Carousel, Lady Angela in Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience, and a variety of other roles. That same year, Amia placed as a Top 10 Finalist in the 2025 American Pops Orchestra NextGen National Vocal Competition. In the fall, Amia moved back east to New York City to pursue further development opportunities in performance and theatrical writing. 

 

Beyond theatre, Amia writes & records off-kilter pop under the pseudonym Dolly In Slacks, a character persona rooted in horror and gender performance and named for the opening lines of Nabokov's Lolita. They are an avid reader and multi-medium writer, currently writing the book & lyrics for Purity, a musical in development set in 1993 in a fringe Christian cult in rural Pennsylvania & based on the structure of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure with composer Ben Ballmer. Amia is a lover of odd visual art— especially Cindy Sherman— and in constant pursuit of a sufficiently detailed gallery wall. Amia loves to spend solo time in nature and orchestrate grandiose road trips with their family and friends.