SAMUEL ADLER
Biographical Sketch
Samuel Adler was born in Mannheim, Germany, in 1928 and came to the United
States in 1939. He holds a B.M. from Boston University, an M.A. from Harvard
University, a Doctor of Music (honorary) from Southern Methodist University,
a Doctor of Fine Arts (honorary) from Wake Forest University, A Doctor of
Music (honorary) from St. Mary's College (Indiana), and a Doctor of Music
(honorary) from Saint Louis Conservatory. During his tenure in the U.S.
Army, he founded and conducted the Seventh Army Orchestra and because of
the orchestra's great psychological and musical impact on the European
cultural scene, he was awarded the Army's Medal of Honor.
Adler's catalog includes over 400 published works in all media including
five operas, six symphonies, eight string quartets, eight concerti (organ,
piano, violin, cello, flute, guitar, saxophone quartet, woodwind quintet),
many shorter orchestral works, works for wind ensemble and band, chamber music,
a great deal of choral music and songs. He has published three books:
Choral Conducting, an anthology (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1971),
second edition (Schirmer Books, 1985); Sight-Singing (W. W. Norton,
1979, 1997); and The Study of Orchestration (W. W. Norton, 1982, 1989),
and numerous articles in major magazines and reference books here and abroad.
Since 1966, Adler has been professor of composition at the Eastman School
of Music and chairman of the composition department since 1974. In 1984, he
was made a Mentor of the University of Rochester. Previous to this, he was
professor of composition at North Texas State University (1957-1966) and
Music Director at Temple Emanu-El, Dallas, Texas (1953-1966). From 1954 to
1958 he was music director of the Dallas Lyric Theater. He has been a guest
composer or conductor at over 300 universities and colleges worldwide. Adler
retired from Eastman in 1994 to become Professor Emeritus of that institution.
Since then he has taught at Ithaca College, University of Cincinnati, Bowling
Green State University, University of Missouri (KC), University of Utah, and
others. He is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School of Music in
New York City.
He has received commissions and grants from the National Endowment for the
Arts (1975, 1978, 1980, and 1982), the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller
Foundation, the Barlow Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Dallas
Symphony Orchestra, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Fine Arts Quartet, the
Pro Arte Quartet, the Kentucky Arts Commission, the Sinfonia Foundation, the
City of Jerusalem, the Cleveland Quartet, the Welsh Arts Council, Oklahoma
City Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony, and many others.
He has been awarded many prizes including a 1990 award from the American
Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, the Charles Ives Award, the Lillian
Fairchild Award, etc. In 1983, he won the Deems Taylor Award for his book
on orchestration; in 1984, he was appointed Honorary Professorial Fellow
of the University College in Cardiff, Wales, and was awarded a Guggenheim
Fellowship for 1984-85. He has been a MacDowell Fellow for five years betwen
1954 and 1963. In 1986 he received the "Distinguished Alumni Award" from
Boston University. The Music Teachers' National Association selected Adler
as its "Composer of the Year 1986-87" for Quintalogues, which won
the national competition. In the 1988-89 year, he has been designated "Phi
Beta Kappa Visiting Scholar." In 1989, he was awarded the Eastman School's
Eisenhart Award for distinguished teaching, and he has been given the honor
of Composer of the Year (1991) for the American Guild of Organists. During
his second visit to Chile, Adler was elected to the Chilean Academy of Fine
Arts (1993) "for his outstanding contributions to the world of music as
composer, conductor, and author."
His works have been performed by major symphonic, choral and chamber
organizations in the U.S., South America, Europe, Asia, and Israel including
the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra,
the Dallas Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Houston Symphony, the Detroit
Symphony as well as the orchestras of Kansas City, San Antonio, Ft. Worth,
New Orleans, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and others.
Adler has also appeared as conductor with major orchestras both here and
abroad and his compositions have been recorded on RCA, Vanguard, Crystal,
CRI, Lyrichord, Mark, Turnabout, Gasparo, and Golden Crest Records.
DISCOGRAPHY (partial)
Works by Samuel Adler
String Quartet #3 CRI CD 608
String Quartet #6 CRI CD 608
String Quartet #7 CRI CD 608
String Quartet #4 Gasparo GSCD 307
String Quartet #5 Gasparo GSCD 307
String Quartet #8 Gasparo GSCD 307
WIND VISIONS Works for Wind Ensemble CITADEL CD 88120
FESTIVE PRELUDE
A LITTLE DAY AND NIGHT MUSIC
SOUTHWESTERN SKETCHES
DOUBLE VISIONS
THE FORCE OF CREDULIRY
BRASS FRAGMENTS
SYMPHONY #3
MUSIC FOR VIOLIN (with or without piano) Gasparo GSCD 297
SONATA #2
SONATA #3
SONATA #4
MEADOWMOUNTETUDES
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, for Violin and cello
LITTLE SUITE
CHAMBER MUSIC WITH PIANO Gasparo GSCD 298
TRIO #1
TRIO #2
DUO SONATA (for two pianos)
Concerto for Flute and Orchestra VOX 7509
Sonata for Guitar Solo Centaur Records CRC 2204
SONATA for Harpsichord GSCD 279 and 280
WORKS FOR ORGAN SOLO GSCD 277
Sonata Breve for Piano New World Records 80304-2
Sonatina for Piano New World Records 80304-2
The Road to Terpsichore for Piano New World Records 80304-2
Canto VIII for Piano New World Records 80304-2
Some bibliographic sources:
CHORAL CONDUCTING Schirmer Books
SIGHT SINGING 2nd Edition 1997
THE STUDY OF ORCHESTRATION 2nd editon 1987
HARVARD COMPOSERS by Howard Pollack Scarecrow Press
DICTIONARY OF CONTEMPORARY MUSIC Robert Vinton, Editor, Dutton
AMERICAN COMPOSERS (A Biographical Dictionary) David Ewen, Putnam
BAKER'S DICTIONARY OF MUSIC AND MUSICIANS
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