James Adler, composer/pianist
Sponsor of the Audience Favorite Award
James Adler is a pianist who “can create whatever type of music he wants at the keyboard” (Chicago Sun-Times) and a composer who writes “with uncommon imagination” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution).
Mr. Adler made his orchestral performing debut with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and has appeared in recital on the Orchestra’s Allied Arts Piano Series, and the Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts Series. His appearances have brought him from Chicago's Grant Park, to London's Royal Albert Hall (broadcast by the BBC), to Thesseloniki, Greece, to New York's Alice Tully Hall, Symphony Space, and the Paramount Theatre at Madison Square Garden.
His extensive list of compositions is headed by Memento mori: An AIDS Requiem. Performed worldwide, recorded by AmorArtis Chorale and Orchestra, and published by Alfred Music, Memento mori features a “range of expression [that] is expansive” and is “a unique, well-crafted, emotionally rich piece” (American Record Guide). Other compositions Reflections upon a September morn (poetry by Walt Whitman); Monday's Child, performed at The Cathedral of Saint John the Divine and at The Metropolitan Museum of Art; Carols of Splendour, premiered at Carnegie Hall; It’s Gotta Be America, commissioned for the Centennial Celebration of the Statue of Liberty; and Canticle For Peace, written for the opening of the 43rd session of the United Nations General Assembly. Mr. Adler is also the composer of Concerto in G for Piano and Orchestra (published by Alfred Music), the children’s “pOpera” Herbie and Carnie: A Dinosaga, the Classic Rag-time Suite for orchestra, numerous solo, chamber, and choral works, and the award-winning film score for The Hat Act.
As performer and composer, Mr. Adler can be heard on recordings from Albany Records, Capstone, Navona, and Ravello Records. His album That Star in the Picture was recognized by the Global Music Awards as a Silver Medal Winner – Outstanding Achievement in the Composer; in August 2024, the album was a double award winner in the 2024 Intercontinental Music Awards Pangea Classical Category. He is a member of the Arts Department at Saint Peter's University, a National Arts Associate in the Sigma Alpha Iota International Music Fraternity, and an advisory board member of Sound Espressivo, which presents the “James Adler Audience Favorite Award” during their Laureates Gala at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall. James Adler is a recipient of the 2017 Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award.
www.adleroaksmusic.com
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Photo Credit: Frank Gimpaya