Gloria E. Amaral was born and raised in the East Bay and comes from a musical famiy. Her grandfather played the mandolin and her father sang and played guitar.  Her mother also sang. In fact her parents met in a choir and later got married in the very same church in which they sang. 

Gloria has studied vocal styling and theory at Laney Community College and taken private and public classes with Jackie Hairston and Rick Fox.  In the early nineties she started singing Salsa music with Orquesta Radiante headed by Rick Rangel. She also began singing with Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir (OIGC), where she performed as part of a 60 voice choir for 3 years at such venues like Oakland's Paramount Theatre, and the Concord Pavillion.  In addition she was part of the OIGC Ensemble, performing at such venues like Slim's on Christmas Eve.

After the birth of her daughter she started her own band- Dulcemambo.  Dulcemambo was a 12 piece Salsa band comprised mostly of women musicians like Tami Ellis, Marina Garza, Michaelle Goerlitz and Dana Hinchliffe.  Dulcemambo performed in the Bay Area for 3 years opening for Oscar de Leon, and performing at many local venues and festivals such as San Jose's Music in the Park.

Although Gloria sings mostly Salsa, her first love is Jazz and fortunately she was able to sing to her hearts content for 5 years with Wild Mango, performing at KCSM  and San Jose Jazz Festivals as well as the Barbados International Jazz Festival opening for Marcus Miller and CeCe Winans.

Gloria has gone on to perform with may local groups such as Edgardo y su Candela, Orquesta D'Soul, Once, Orquesta Cadencia, and Wild Mango; and Montuno Groove.

Gloria is available for hire for your studio project. Click on Audio to hear some of Gloria's recordings.

Gloria's recording credits include:

Kathleen Enright- Long Way Around (OIGC Ensemble)

Kelly Ballard - Psalms (3MT)

Wild Mango - Ten

Orquesta D'Soul - Remember Me

Vission Latina - Kitikimbá Pa' Ti

Brian Andres -Drummers Speak - now available for purchase @ CD Baby

Orquesta D'Soul - La Vida Despues - now available for purchase @ ODSLive.com