Bruce Adolphe is a composer, educator, performer, and author whose music is performed worldwide by renowned artists. Some career highlights have included: Itzhak Perlman's world premiere performances of Adolphe's solo violin music at The Kennedy Center and Avery Fisher Hall; Yo-Yo Ma playing the world premiere of Self Comes to Mind, a work based on a text written for the project by neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, at the American Museum of Natural History; the Washington National Opera performances of Let Freedom Sing: the story of Marian Anderson (libretto by Carolivia Herron); an evening of Adolphe works at The Kennedy Center; two full-length operas on Jewish subjects at The 92nd Street Y (Mikhoels the Wise and The False Messiah); nine world premieres at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.
Musics of Memorycelebrated its world premiere in October 2014 at the Brain and Creativity Institute at Uuniversity of Southern California in LA. The work - scored for piano, marimba, harp, and guitar - is structured to reflect the way memory works in the brain. Also this season, the IRIS Orchestra conducted by Michael Stern will give the world premiere of I Will Not Remain Silent, a violin concerto based on the life of Joachim Prinz, with Sharon Roffman, soloist. This season also sees the release of the film Einstein's Light by Nickolas Barris, featuring Adolphe's score, which reflects Einstein's love of the violin, of Mozart, and of Bach. The soundtrack features violinist Joshua Bell and pianist Marija Stroke.
Over the past 25 years, Mr. Adolphe has served as composer-in-residence at many festivals and institutions throughout the United States for which he has also created and led educational concerts and workshops for all ages and levels of musical accomplishment. A key figure at The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Mr. Adolphe is the founder and director of the Society's Meet the Music family concert series as well as the Society's resident lecturer. He has appeared as a commentator on Live From Lincoln Center television and as a regular lecturer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The author of three books on music, he has taught at Yale, Juilliard, and New York University. Since 2002, he performs his Piano Puzzlers weekly on public radio's Performance Today, hosted by Fred Child. With Julian Fifer, Mr. Adolphe co-founded The Learning Maestros, a company dedicated to creating new works and related curricula that integrate music with other disciplines, including science, literature, history, and issues of social conscience. His book The Mind's Ear: Exercises for Improving the Musical Imagination was published in a second edition in October 2013 by Oxford University Press. Mr. Adolphe was recently appointed composer-in-residence at the Brain and Creativity Institute in Los Angeles, where he works with neuroscientists Antonio and Hanna Damasio and Assal Habibi.