James Adler Performs REFLECTION AND CELEBRATION in November

Yamaha Artist Services Studio NY presents highly acclaimed, New York City-based pianist and composer James Adler in Reflection and Celebration on Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 7pm. This program features the world premiere of A Curtis Reflection, commissioned by and dedicated to The Curtis Institute of Music as part of their "100x100" initiative celebrating the Curtis Centenary in 2024, as well as works by composers Henco Espag, Paul Turok, Robert Schumann, Claude Debussy, and Vladimir Horowitz. Mr. Adler will be joined by tenor Michael Buchanan and flutist Denise Končelik in a performance of his piece, Beautiful Garden, from his new album on Albany Records, That Star in the Picture. He has just been named a Global Music Awards Silver Medal Winner – Outstanding Achievement in the Composer category for That Star in the Picture. Admission to the recital is free but seating is limited. Please reserve your tickets in advance.

Tuesday, November 14, 2023 at 7pm
Yamaha Artist Services Studio NY
689 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10022
Admission is free.

James Adler, Pianist and Composer

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). The Curtis Institute of Music commissioned a new work from Mr. Adler as part of their Centenary Commissioning Initiative “100x100.” He presents the world premiere of A Curtis Reflection for piano solo in recital at the Yamaha Artist Services Studio NY in November; this will be broadcast at Curtis during their Centenary Celebrations in 2024. In April, he appears in recital on the “Sunday Evenings at Klavierhaus” concert series in New York, and also performs on the Arts on Bergen midday concert series at Saint Peter’s University.

Mr. Adler receives praise for his newest recording from Albany records, That Star in the Picture, featuring his theater and art songs. Luciano Feliciani (Kathodik) calls this “a disc of great value, to be savored slowly,” while Judith Clurman (Conductor, Essential Voices USA) notes that “James Adler writes beautiful melodies.” This “exquisite” (David DeBoor Canfield, Fanfare), “lovely collection of lighter songs” (Henry Fogel, Fanfare) features performances by cabaret artists Shana Farr and Michael Buchanan; Broadway performer Kennedy Kanagawa; Perry Sook and Elizaveta Ulakhovich; and Metropolitan Opera mezzo-soprano Victoria Livengood in a new chamber version of Mr. Adler’s Pie Jesu from Memento mori: An AIDS Requiem.

Mr. Adler is honored to serve on the Sound Espressivo Advisory Board. Sound Espressivo - Virtual Classical/Jazz music is known for the competitions and events it hosts. In 2023-2024, performers will compete for in-person concerto appearances at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, as well as with other orchestras throughout the world. The “James Adler Audience Favorite Award” is presented during the Laureates Gala, and Mr. Adler, a known interpreter of Rachmaninoff’s music, serves as a judge for a special competition celebrating the life and music of Sergei Rachmaninoff.

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 include Reflections upon a September morn (poetry by Walt Whitman); Songs of Innocence and of Experience (poetry by William Blake); A Winter Triptych (Albany Records); 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 (“A cheerful, splashy tour de force, skillfully constructed and full of clever ideas,” The Choral Journal); 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 (published by Colla Voce Music). 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. 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 was selected in 2018 for membership in the SAI Composer’s Bureau. James Adler is a recipient of the 2017 Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Mr. Adler is a Yamaha Artist.

Mr. Adler was named a 2023 Global Music Awards Silver Medal Winner – Outstanding Achievement in the Composer category for That Star in the Picture. 

Photo Credit: Frank Gimpaya