Amis was educated- "fully paid for"-[1] at Dulwich College (having also attended its preparatory school), where he began a lifelong friendship with his contemporary, Donald Swann.

Amis had a number of roles, including gramophone record salesman, and orchestra manager (at one point turning pages for Dame Myra Hess during the wartime concerts at the National Gallery.

Amis remained administrative director until 1981, during which time he brought to the school a long line of international musicians, amongst them Paul Hindemith, Igor Stravinsky, and Sir Michael Tippett.

Amis' short career as a tenor began with the role of Ishmael in the 1967 recording of Bernard Herrmann's cantata Moby-Dick.

As a critic, Amis often came across contemporaries including Neville Cardus (Manchester Guardian), Frank Howes (The Times), Scott Goddard (News Chronicle) and Richard Capell (Telegraph).

Amis spent much of his time giving talks and one-man shows, after dinner speeches and concert works.

[citation needed] In the later years of his life, Amis took up with his partner, Isla Baring OAM, Chairman of the Tait Memorial Trust of which he was a Patron.