Mr. Adams began his conducting studies at S.U.N.Y. Fredonia under Harry John Brown. Upon graduation he received his certification as a Registered Music Therapist. In 1976 he moved to the Aspen area and began his studies as a Conducting Fellow with the Aspen Music Festival under Murry Sidlin. Mr. Adams participated in Master Classes with Jorge Mester, Leonard Slatkin, and Sergiu Commissiona. One year after his arrival in Aspen, he began conducting choral concerts as well as his annual Messiah concerts which after 30 years have become the oldest running holiday tradition in the Roaring Fork Valley.
Under his direction, the Aspen Choral Society incorporated in 1995 and began to focus on choral masterworks. Since 1999 Adams has conducted the Aspen Choral Society in works including the Mozart Requiem, the Mozart Great Mass in C Minor, the Brahms German Requiem, Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, and Bach’s Cantata #80, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, which were all performed at Harris Concert Hall. Mr. Adams and the Choral Society have also featured members of the orchestra in performances of Mozart’s Violin Concertos #3 and #5, the Strauss Horn Concerto #1, Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante, and Bach’s Concerto for Two Violins in D Minor, the Third Brandenburg Concerto and the Third Orchestral Suite.
As the Composer-in-Residence for the Aspen Choral Society and in past years, for the Aspen Community Church, Mr. Adams continues as a very active composer. He has completed a suite of five sacred pieces for chorus and orchestra, all of which were premiered with the Aspen Community Chorus, the Aspen Women’s Chorus, the Glenwood Springs Community Chorus, and the Glenwood Springs Women’s Chorus between 2000 and 2006. This sacred suite includes Angels, Revelation, Requiem, Passion, and Creation. Additionally he has completed Rumi, Songs of Love, a song cycle based on the poems of the Sufi mystic, Jelaluddin Rumi, and premiered on Valentine’s Day of 2002. He also premiered Aspen Songs, a cycle of six songs for soprano, violin, cello and piano in the spring of 2008. Adams is in a two-month residency at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Southern California where he is writing American Landscapes, Music from Dorland Mountain, a piece for chorus and orchestra, which will be premiered spring 2009.
Mr. Adams and the Aspen Choral Society have collaborated with the Aspen Chapel Choir, the Snowmass Chapel Choir, and the Symphony in the Valley. He recently taught a class in connection with the Carbondale Council on the Arts. It was geared towards helping the general public make better-informed decisions about which concerts they would attend during the 2007 summer Aspen Music Festival and School season. Mr. Adams is an Aspen Music Festival and School Corporate Member. He is single and has a son, Spencer. He may be reached at (970) 925-3685.
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