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 29 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 steered the Choral Society toward larger works including the Mozart Requiem, the Mozart Great Mass in C Minor, the Brahms German Requiem, and Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass which were all performed at Harris Concert Hall. He has also directed and featured members of the Aspen Choral Society 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 as well as the most recent all-Bach program with the Third Brandenburg Concerto and the Third Orchestral Suite. This spring’s 2007 performance also included the Cantata #80, Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott sung by the Aspen and Glenwood Springs Choral Society’s Community Choruses and was performed for the first time in Glenwood as well as in Aspen.
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. The 2000-2001 season saw the world premiere of his first work, Angels performed in December at Harris Concert Hall. It consisted of a three-part choral suite for women’s chorus, soloists and string orchestra. It was the first of a planned series of five sacred pieces for chorus and orchestra. The 2001-2002 season included the world premiere of the second of his compositions in this series, Revelation, performed November 30th and December 1st at Harris Concert Hall. Rumi, Songs of Love, a song cycle based on the poems of the Sufi mystic, Jelaluddin Rumi, premiered on Valentine’s Day of 2002 that season. The third in his series of sacred pieces, Requiem was premiered in the spring of 2003. Following that performance, in September of 2003 he completed a six-week residency program at Dorland Mountain Arts Colony in Southern California, returning again at Christmas, where he completed The Passion which premiered in the spring of 2004. The fifth and culmination of six years of work on these sacred pieces, Creation, premiered in the spring of 2006.
Mr. Adams and the Aspen Choral Society have recently collaborated with the Aspen Chapel Choir, the Snowmass Chapel Choir and the Symphony in the Valley. In May he 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 upcoming summer Aspen Music Festival and School season. It is a class based on one that he routinely taught while working for the Music Festival and School. 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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