Image © Christian Slater
Whether it's about a mysterious message from the moon, a fugitive turkey or a terrifying
dinosaur, Bruce Adolphe's music captures the hearts and minds of his audience, kids
and adults alike. Adolphe has composed music for Itzhak Perlman, the chamber Music
Society of Lincoln Center, the National Symphony, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra,
the Beau Arts Trio, Sylvia McNair, the Chicago Chamber Musicians, the Caramoor Festival
and many other renowned musicians and organizations. He has been composer-in-residence
at festivals around the country, including SummerFest La Jolla in California, the
Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival, Chamber Music Northwest in Oregon, Music from Angel
Fire in New Mexico, Bravo! Colorado, and the Appalachian Festival in North Carolina.
Adolphe's music is also frequently performed abroad in Germany, England, Japan, the
Netherlands, Ireland and Italy.
As composer, author, actor, pianist and scriptwriter, Bruce Adolphe has earned a
national reputation as a leading figure in the field of music education and audience
development. Renowned for combining comedy and musical scholarship, he has been the
lecturer of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1992, as well as a
frequent speaker at many of the country's premier concert series and festivals, music
schools and education conferences. A prolific author, Bruce has written three books
on the art of listening to music: The Mind's Ear: Exercises for Improving the
Musical Imagination; What to Listen for in the World; and Of Mozart,
Parrots and Cherry Blossoms in the Wind: A Composer Explores Mysteries of the Musical
Mind. He has appeared on nationally televised Live from Lincoln Center
broadcasts, and is often a guest on National Public Radio.
In Tuesday's Cleveland Plain Dealer (3/27), Donald
Rosenberg profiles Bruce Adolphe, who "may be a
composer, author, lecturer, teacher and occasional actor,
but he really sounds more like a big, happy kid." The CIM
New Music Ensemble will feature Adolphe's
"lighthearted" "Tyrannosaurus Sue: A Cretaceous
Concerto" as well as a "serious" work, "Whispers of
Mortality" (String Quartet No. 4). Rosenberg finds that
Adolphe "relishes his multifaceted career, which keeps
him busy, not only as composer of chamber music and
operas for children, but also as education adviser for the
Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center." Adolphe
explains: "I'm really living the life musically even more
than I expected to . . . I feel very lucky. If I was only
writing something like a string quartet and not doing
books or lectures, I'd probably have less to do and less
success and be more stressed."
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