Samuel Hans Adler (born March 4, 1928) is a German-American composer, conductor, author, and professor. During the course of a professional career which ranges over six decades he has served as a faculty member at both the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. In addition, he is credited with founding and conducting the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra which participated in the cultural diplomacy initiatives of the United States in Germany and throughout Europe in the aftermath of World War II. Adler's musical catalogue includes over 400 published compositions. He has been honored with several awards, including Germany's Order of Merit – Officer's Cross.
Biography Adler was born to a Jewish family in Mannheim, Germany, the son of Hugo Chaim Adler, a cantor and composer, and Selma Adler who was an amateur pianist."Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians: Centennial Edition". Slonimsky, Nicholas editor. Schirmer Books, New York NY, 2001. Vol.1 pg. 23 ISBN 0-02-865526-5 At the age of ten, Samuel was separated from his father while Hugo was imprisoned in the Netherlands following the Kristallnacht pogrom of 1938.University of Hamburg: Institute for Historical Musicology - Biography of Samuel Adler on lexum.edu.uni-hamburg.de After Hugo's return to Mannheim, the family was reunited and subsequently fled the Nazi regime in Germany through the Netherlands to the United States in 1939, where Hugo became the cantor of Temple Emanuel in Worcester, Massachusetts. Sam soon followed his father into the music profession and began his musical studies on the violin with Albert Levy. His formal education in composition was initiated under Herbert Fromm in 1941. Subsequently, Adler earned degrees from both Boston University (where he studied musicology with Karl Geiringer) and Harvard University (where he studied with Aaron Copland, Irving Fine, Paul Hindemith, Paul Pisk, Walter Piston, and Randall Thompson and earned an M.A. in 1950). He studied conducting with Serge Koussevitzky at the Berkshire Music Center at Tanglewood in 1949. Adler has been awarded four honorary doctorates from Southern Methodist and Wake Forest Universities, St. Mary's College of Notre Dame and the St. Louis Conservatory of Music.The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music Editor Don Michael Randel, Belknap Press of Harvard University, Cambridge, 1996 p. 6
After completing his academic studies in 1950, Adler served as a corporal in the 2d Armored Division.A Dictionary for the Modern Composer, Emily Freeman Brown, Scarecrow Press, Oxford, 2015, p. 311 During this time he founded the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra (1952) in Stuttgart, Germany, which served to demonstrate the shared cultural heritage of America and Europe in the post World War II era through cultural diplomacy.Uncle Sam's Orchestra: Memories of the Seventh Army Orchestra John Canaria, University of Rochester Press 1998 New Music New Allies Amy C. Beal, University of California Press, Berkley, 2006, P. 49, "Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra (1952–1962) performing works by Roy Harris, Morton Gould and Leroy Anderson" For this, he received a special Citation of Excellence from the Army for the orchestra's success between 1952 and 1961. Subsequently, he accepted a position as music director at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas, beginning his tenure there in 1953. At the Dallas temple during his 1953 to 1966 tenure, he formed four children's choirs, and an adult volunteer choir with ninety members. From 1954 to 1958, Adler conducted the Dallas Lyric Theater. From 1957 to 1966, he served as professor of Composition at the University of North Texas College of Music. Between 1966 and 1995, Adler served as professor of composition at the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music. In addition, he served as chairman of the Department of Music at the Eastman School of Music from 1973 to 1994. Since 1997, Adler has been a member of the composition faculty at Juilliard and, for the 2009–10 year, was awarded the William Schuman Scholars Chair.
He is also the author of three books, Choral Conducting (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, 2001, 2016; Italian edition edited by Lorenzo Ferrero for EDT Srl Torino, 2008). He has also contributed numerous articles to major magazines, books and encyclopedias published in the U.S. and abroad. Adler also reflected upon six decades of teaching in his memoirs Building Bridges with Music: Stories from a Composer's Life which was published by Pendragon Press in 2017.Building Bridges with Music: Stories from a Composer's Life Samuel Adler, Editor: Jurgen Thym, Pendragon Press, New York, 2017
Over the decades Adler's musical legacy has been interpreted by several orchestral ensembles including: the Cleveland Chamber Symphony, Esterhazy Quartet, the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra, Brandenburgisches Staatsorchester Frankfurt, and the Bowling Green Philharmonia. In more recent times his works have also been showcased by leading orchestras around the world, including: the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Mannheim National Theatre Orchestra, and the St. Louis Symphony. Performances of his compositions have been recorded on several record labels including: Albany Records, Linn Records, Navona Records, and Naxos Records.
Adler is married to Emily Freeman Brown, who is currently serving as music director and conductor of the Bowling Green Philharmonia.Emily Freeman Brown – Biography on efreemanbrown.comConductors Guild Advisory Council – Emily Freeman Brown, Guild President 2003–2004 on conductorsguild.orgBowling Green State University (BGSU) – Emily Freeman Brown Biography on bgsu.edu
Compositional style
Musicologists have noted that Adler's works incorporate a wide range of compositional techniques including: free atonality, diatonicism, and serialism. In addition, he is recognized for interweaving dance rhythms, folk themes, ostinati, and devices associated with aleatoric music throughout his scores. Adler does not advocate serialism or atonality.
It has also been observed that Adler's compositions illustrate a "midstream modernism", which is characterized by interwoven contrapunctal musical lines which form the foundation for a tonal harmonic complex punctuated by tangential atonal episodes. In addition, his music is said to be inspired by the liturgical cantilena featured in the Jewish musical tradition as well as oriental inflections.
In the course of describing his own compositional style, Adler emphasized the belief that contemporary music does not place sufficient emphasis on the aesthetic and communicative impact of musical composition while exaggerating the technical aspect instead. Simply stated, Adler observes that, "I feel that my works require a modified serial technique, but it is a very unorthodox one, and almost never strictly adhered to throughout a given work. Neither does it destroy all tonal feeling".Music Educators Journal 1 March 1967, Volume 53 Issue 7 p. 41 "American Composers Sketches: Samuel Adler" on Sage Journals
Awards Adler has been awarded many prizes, including a membership into the American Academy in Berlin (2004)The American Academy in Berlin Past Fellows – Samuel Adler (2004) on americanacademy.de and Institute of Arts and Letters awarded in May 2001, the Charles Ives Award (1961),The Living Composer's Project: Samuel Adler Biography and the Lillian Fairchild Award (1974).In May 2003, he was presented with the Aaron Copland Award by ASCAP for Lifetime Achievement in Music (Composition and Teaching).Composition in the Digital World – Conversations with 21-st Century American Composers Robert Raines. Oxford university Press, New York 2015 In 2008, he was inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Similarly, in 2001 Adler was honored with a lifetime appointment to the American Academy of Arts and Letters.American Academy of Arts and Letters - Members on artsandletters.orgEastman School of Music - University of Rochester Samuel Adler Biography on esm.rochester.edu In 1999, he was elected to the Academy of Arts, Berlin for distinguished service to music. 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 between 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". He was initiated as an honorary member of the Gamma Theta (1960, University of North Texas) and the Alpha Alpha (1966, National Honorary) chapters of Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, and in 1986 was named a National Arts Associate to Sigma Alpha Iota, international music fraternity for women. In 1998, he was awarded the Brock Commission from the American Choral Directors Association., Retrieved March 2016
In May, 2018, Adler was awarded the German Bundesverdienstkreuz 1. Klasse (Order of Merit – Officer's Cross), presented to him in New York by Consul General David Gill. On June 1, 2018, Adler was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, and presented the graduation address at Hebrew Union College – Jewish Institute of Religion's Cincinnati graduation ceremony.
Works Adler's catalogue includes over 400 published works in all media, including three operas, six symphonies, ten string quartets, at least eleven concerti (organ, piano, violin, viola or clarinet, 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, liturgical music, and songs.
Solo instrumental
Four Composer Portraits (Birthday Cards for Solo Piano), for unaccompanied piano Bassoonery (Study for Bassoon Solo), for unaccompanied bassoon (1965) A Bonnie Tune (A Scherzo for Solo Flute), for unaccompanied flute (2012) Bravura (A Concert Piece for Bass Trombone), for unaccompanied bass trombone (2012) Bridges to Span Adversity, for harpsichord (1991) Cantilena, for solo F horn (2018) Canto III, for solo violin Canto V Canto VII Unaccompanied tuba solo // ungraded (1976) Canto VIII, for solo piano (1976) Canto IX, for Multiple Percussion Solo (1979), co-composed with John H. Beck calling for 5 timpani and 6 rototoms Clarinon, for unaccompanied B-flat clarinet Fantasy, for solo piano (2014) Festschrift, for solo piano Flaunting, for unaccompanied flute From Generation to Generation, for solo organ In Memory of Milton, for solo violin (2012) In Praise of Bach, for solo organ (2003) Meadowmountetudes (Four Studies Of 20th-Century Techniques), for solo violin (1996) Oboration, for unaccompanied oboe (1965) The Sense of Touch (Eight Short Pieces Introducing the Young Pianist to Techniques Used in Twentieth-Century Music), for solo piano (1983) Solemn Soliloquy, for solo violin (2015) Sonata, for solo guitar (1990) Sonata, for harpsichord (1984) Three Piano Preludes, for solo piano Thy Song Expands My Spirit (A Tribute to Aaron Copland on His 80th Birthday), for solo piano (1983) Two Meditations, for organ (1965) ’’Variations on the Japanese Lullaby “Komori Uta”, for solo trombone (2022)