Richard Adams

Richard Adams is a tenured full professor of music composition at Western Michigan University. Before coming to WMU, Adams taught composition at the Oberlin Conservatory and The University of Michigan. He has had residencies and fellowships at the MacDowell Colony, the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France, the Aspen Music Festival Center for Advanced Composition Studies, and the Charles Ives Center for American Music.

Adams’ compositions draw on both classical and popular musical elements and have been described by the Cleveland Plain Dealer as “effectively integrating the physicality of rock with the structure of classical music.” The Washington Post wrote that “The performances were exuberant and high-energy.” And, the Metro Times (Detroit) described his concert by saying it “was nothing short of genius.”

Since joining the WMU faculty in 1997, Adams has established himself as a nationally recognized composer with a stream of prominent orchestral and chamber-music commissions, professional performances, and commercial recordings. Major commissions and performances include those by the Albany Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Tulsa Philharmonic, the Northwest Florida Symphony, the Kalamazoo Symphony, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Louisiana Sinfonietta, the ASO Brass Quintet, the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce, Opus 21, the WMU Symphonic Band, the Western Brass Quintet, the Western Wind Quintet, and the New York-based new music ensemble Sequitur, among others. Commercial recordings featuring his works include those on the Koch International Classics and Albany Records labels.

Adams’ music and compositional activities have been recognized through numerous national awards and grants, including those from Chamber Music America, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Meet the Composer, the Aaron Copland Fund, ASCAP, BMI, the MacDowell Colony, and the Society of Composers Inc.

Adams has been covered nationally in major publications and radio interviews/broadcasts, including The New York Times, Newsday, the Village Voice, The Washington Post, the Detroit Free Press, Symphony Magazine, Jazz Times, Chamber Music, and multiple on-air interviews/broadcasts, including NPR/National Public Radio, NPR/Michigan Radio, and WNYC in New York City on three occasions (two one-hour-long interviews, and a Carnegie Hall orchestral broadcast).

In addition to Adams’ teaching and composing activities, he is also the founder of the nationally recognized contemporary music ensemble Opus 21, which gave six to eight professional concerts each year (including annual performances in New York City) and was honored with two prestigious awards from Chamber Music America, including the 2006 First Prize for Adventurous Programming. Adams and Opus 21 were presented by some of the country’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in New York City and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Through his ensemble, Adams has been involved in commissioning and performing over two dozen world premieres from some of the country’s most preeminent classical and jazz composers (including Pulitzer Prize and Grammy Award winners), as well as from a number of America’s emerging young talents.
 

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