Ryan McAdams
Encyclopedia
Ryan Bell McAdams is an American
conductor
and currently the 15th Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony.
, he was twice a student at the Interlochen Center for the Arts
. After graduating from Clayton High School
, McAdams began his undergraduate studies in 2000 at Indiana University
as a piano student of Dr. Karen Shaw. McAdams graduated with an B.M. in Piano Performance in 2004.
Upon graduating from Indiana University, he became the first Masters Student to be accepted into the Juilliard Conducting Studies program by James DePreist
, and was awarded the Bruno Walter
Memorial Scholarship. McAdams graduated with a M.M. in Orchestral Conducting in 2007.
During the summers of 2005-06, he attended the Aspen Music Festival and School
as a student at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen where he studied with David Zinman
and Murry Sidlin. He participated in master classes with Marin Alsop
, George Manahan, Leonard Slatkin
, Asher Fisch, and James Conlon
. McAdams became the first-ever recipient of the Festival's Aspen-Glimmerglass Prize for Opera and Vocal Conducting, nominated by both David Zinman and Glimmerglass Opera. In 2008, he was appointed the Assistant Conductor for the Aspen Music Festival. In the summer of 2009, he was one of three Conducting Fellows at the Tanglewood Music Festival
, where he studied with conductors James Levine
and Stefan Asbury.
, studying and traveling with then-Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert
. In the spring of 2007, he was invited by Lorin Maazel
to create the post of Apprentice Conductor for the Chateauville Foundation at the Maazel Estate in Virginia
. As a result of the Aspen-Glimmerglass Prize, he served as Assistant Conductor for Glimmerglass Opera
's 2007 season.
In 2007, McAdams was named the 15th Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony
. He made his Carnegie Hall
debut on December 9, 2007 with the New York Youth Symphony and violin soloist William Harvey. During the 2007-2008 season, McAdams' conducting appearances included performances with the New Jersey Symphony, Glimmerglass Opera
, Rutgers University
, and the Juilliard FOCUS! Festival. He also served as cover conductor to David Robertson
and the Saint Louis Symphony at Carnegie Hall
in performances of Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie
and the U.S. Premiere of John Adams' Doctor Atomic Symphony
, and served as assistant conductor to Anne Manson at the Juilliard Opera Center for the New York Premiere of Ned Rorem
's Our Town
, in addition to his three Carnegie Hall
appearances with the New York Youth Symphony. He served as Assistant Conductor for the American Composers Orchestra
at Carnegie Hall
and in Philadelphia's Zellerbach Theater. In 2008, he served as the Assistant Conductor for the Aspen Music Festival.
In the 2008-9 season, McAdams appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic,Princeton Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Wordless Music Series (NYC), and Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony
.
McAdams made his European debut with the Maggio Musicale Orchestra in Florence
in February, 2010, and was reinvited for subscription concerts in 2012. He will return to Italy in 2011 for concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Della RAI in Turino. He made his American opera debut with the New York City Opera
in the spring of 2010, and was named Associate Conductor of the NYCO two months later. He made his Eastern European debut in Dubrovnik, Croatia with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
in September 2010. In October, he conducted the world premiere of Jonathan Dawe's opera "Cracked Orlando" at the Italian Academy in New York, starring Anthony Roth Costanzo.
In the summer of 2010, he became the first-ever recipient of the Sir Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award, a $10,000 prize given by the Solti Foundation in Chicago.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
and currently the 15th Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony.
Education
Born in St. Louis, MissouriSt. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...
, he was twice a student at the Interlochen Center for the Arts
Interlochen Center for the Arts
Interlochen Center for the Arts is a privately owned, 1,200 acre arts education institution in Interlochen, Michigan, roughly 15 miles southwest of Traverse City...
. After graduating from Clayton High School
Clayton High School (Missouri)
Clayton High School is a public high school located in the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, Missouri. It is the only high school within the School District of Clayton.-Accolades:...
, McAdams began his undergraduate studies in 2000 at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
as a piano student of Dr. Karen Shaw. McAdams graduated with an B.M. in Piano Performance in 2004.
Upon graduating from Indiana University, he became the first Masters Student to be accepted into the Juilliard Conducting Studies program by James DePreist
James DePreist
James Anderson DePreist is an American conductor. One of the few African American conductors on the world stage, he is currently the director of conducting and orchestral studies at the Juilliard School and laureate music director of the Oregon Symphony.-Biography:DePreist was born in Philadelphia...
, and was awarded the Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter
Bruno Walter was a German-born conductor. He is considered one of the best known conductors of the 20th century. Walter was born in Berlin, but is known to have lived in several countries between 1933 and 1939, before finally settling in the United States in 1939...
Memorial Scholarship. McAdams graduated with a M.M. in Orchestral Conducting in 2007.
During the summers of 2005-06, he attended the Aspen Music Festival and School
Aspen Music Festival and School
The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...
as a student at the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen where he studied with David Zinman
David Zinman
David Zinman is an American conductor and violinist.After early violin studies at the Oberlin Conservatory, Zinman studied theory and composition at the University of Minnesota and took up conducting at Tanglewood...
and Murry Sidlin. He participated in master classes with Marin Alsop
Marin Alsop
Marin Alsop is an American conductor and violinist. She is the music director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra.In 2012, Alsop will replace Yan Pascal Tortelier as principal conductor of the São Paulo State Symphony Orchestra....
, George Manahan, Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Slatkin
Leonard Edward Slatkin is an American conductor and composer.-Early life and education:Slatkin was born in Los Angeles to a musical family that came from areas of the Russian Empire now in Ukraine. His father Felix Slatkin was the violinist, conductor and founder of the Hollywood String Quartet,...
, Asher Fisch, and James Conlon
James Conlon
James Conlon is an American conductor and the current Music Director of the Los Angeles Opera.-Early years:Conlon grew up in a family of five children on Cherry Street in Douglaston, Queens, New York. His mother, Angeline L. Conlon, was a freelance writer. His father was an assistant to the New...
. McAdams became the first-ever recipient of the Festival's Aspen-Glimmerglass Prize for Opera and Vocal Conducting, nominated by both David Zinman and Glimmerglass Opera. In 2008, he was appointed the Assistant Conductor for the Aspen Music Festival. In the summer of 2009, he was one of three Conducting Fellows at the Tanglewood Music Festival
Tanglewood Music Festival
The Tanglewood Music Festival is a music festival held every summer on the Tanglewood estate in Lenox, Massachusetts in the Berkshire Hills in western Massachusetts....
, where he studied with conductors James Levine
James Levine
James Lawrence Levine is an American conductor and pianist. He is currently the music director of the Metropolitan Opera and former music director of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Levine's first performance conducting the Metropolitan Opera was on June 5, 1971, and as of May 2011 he has...
and Stefan Asbury.
Career
in 2006, he received a Fulbright Grant for Stockholm, Sweden, where he spent the year serving as Apprentice Conductor to the Royal Stockholm PhilharmonicRoyal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra
The Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra is a Swedish orchestra based in Stockholm.The orchestra was founded in 1902 as the Stockholm Concert Society . The orchestra became a permanent ensemble in 1914. Since 1926, it has been based in the Stockholm Concert Hall...
, studying and traveling with then-Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert
Alan Gilbert (conductor)
Alan Gilbert is an American violinist and conductor. He is currently the Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, making his debut performance as the orchestra's music director on September 16, 2009.-Early years:...
. In the spring of 2007, he was invited by Lorin Maazel
Lorin Maazel
Lorin Varencove Maazel is an American conductor, violinist and composer.- Early life :Maazel was born to Jewish-American parents in Neuilly-sur-Seine in France and brought up in the United States, primarily at his parents' home in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. His father, Lincoln Maazel , was...
to create the post of Apprentice Conductor for the Chateauville Foundation at the Maazel Estate in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. As a result of the Aspen-Glimmerglass Prize, he served as Assistant Conductor for Glimmerglass Opera
Glimmerglass Opera
Glimmerglass Festival is an opera company which was founded in 1975 by Peter Macris and presents an annual season of operas at the Alice Busch Opera Theater on Otsego Lake eight miles north of Cooperstown, New York, United States.The summer-only season usually consists of four operas performed in...
's 2007 season.
In 2007, McAdams was named the 15th Music Director of the New York Youth Symphony
New York Youth Symphony
The New York Youth Symphony is a tuition-free music organization for youth in New York City. Its programs include its flagship symphony orchestra, Chamber Music program, Jazz Band Classic, Apprentice Conducting, and Making Score. Its members range from 12 to 22 years of age...
. He made his Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
debut on December 9, 2007 with the New York Youth Symphony and violin soloist William Harvey. During the 2007-2008 season, McAdams' conducting appearances included performances with the New Jersey Symphony, Glimmerglass Opera
Glimmerglass Opera
Glimmerglass Festival is an opera company which was founded in 1975 by Peter Macris and presents an annual season of operas at the Alice Busch Opera Theater on Otsego Lake eight miles north of Cooperstown, New York, United States.The summer-only season usually consists of four operas performed in...
, Rutgers University
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, and the Juilliard FOCUS! Festival. He also served as cover conductor to David Robertson
David Robertson (conductor)
David Eric Robertson is an American conductor. He is currently the music director of the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.-Early life:...
and the Saint Louis Symphony at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
in performances of Messiaen's Turangalîla-Symphonie
Turangalîla-Symphonie
The Turangalîla-Symphonie is a large-scale piece of orchestral music by Olivier Messiaen. It was written from 1946 to 1948, on a commission by Serge Koussevitzky for the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The premiere was given by that orchestra on December 2, 1949, conducted by Leonard Bernstein in Boston...
and the U.S. Premiere of John Adams' Doctor Atomic Symphony
Doctor Atomic
Doctor Atomic is an opera by the contemporary American composer John Adams, with libretto by Peter Sellars. It premiered at the San Francisco Opera on 1 October 2005. The work focuses on the great stress and anxiety experienced by those at Los Alamos while the test of the first atomic bomb was...
, and served as assistant conductor to Anne Manson at the Juilliard Opera Center for the New York Premiere of Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem
Ned Rorem is a Pulitzer prize-winning American composer and diarist. He is best known and most praised for his song settings.-Life:...
's Our Town
Our Town
Our Town is a three-act play by American playwright Thornton Wilder. It is a character story about an average town's citizens in the early twentieth century as depicted through their everyday lives...
, in addition to his three Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
appearances with the New York Youth Symphony. He served as Assistant Conductor for the American Composers Orchestra
American Composers Orchestra
The American Composers Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New York City. It is the only orchestra in the world dedicated solely to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers...
at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
and in Philadelphia's Zellerbach Theater. In 2008, he served as the Assistant Conductor for the Aspen Music Festival.
In the 2008-9 season, McAdams appeared with the Los Angeles Philharmonic,Princeton Symphony, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Wordless Music Series (NYC), and Carnegie Hall with the New York Youth Symphony
New York Youth Symphony
The New York Youth Symphony is a tuition-free music organization for youth in New York City. Its programs include its flagship symphony orchestra, Chamber Music program, Jazz Band Classic, Apprentice Conducting, and Making Score. Its members range from 12 to 22 years of age...
.
McAdams made his European debut with the Maggio Musicale Orchestra in Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
in February, 2010, and was reinvited for subscription concerts in 2012. He will return to Italy in 2011 for concerts with the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale Della RAI in Turino. He made his American opera debut with the New York City Opera
New York City Opera
The New York City Opera is an American opera company located in New York City.The company, called "the people's opera" by New York Mayor Fiorello La Guardia, was founded in 1943 with the aim of making opera financially accessible to a wide audience, producing an innovative choice of repertory, and...
in the spring of 2010, and was named Associate Conductor of the NYCO two months later. He made his Eastern European debut in Dubrovnik, Croatia with the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is an English chamber orchestra, based in London.Sir Neville Marriner founded the ensemble as The Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields in London as a small, conductorless string group. The ensemble's name comes from Trafalgar Square's St Martin-in-the-Fields...
in September 2010. In October, he conducted the world premiere of Jonathan Dawe's opera "Cracked Orlando" at the Italian Academy in New York, starring Anthony Roth Costanzo.
In the summer of 2010, he became the first-ever recipient of the Sir Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award, a $10,000 prize given by the Solti Foundation in Chicago.
Awards and Scholarships
- Sir Georg Solti Emerging Conductor Award, Solti Foundation, 2010 (inaugural recipient)
- Fulbright Grant, Sweden, 2007
- Aspen-Glimmerglass Prize for Opera and Vocal Conducting (inaugural recipient)
- Bruno Walter Memorial Scholarship, Juilliard School
- Dean's Scholarship, Indiana University