Adam Schumaker is an active composer, songwriter, and arranger. He is currently working on an album of original songs called Love, Death, Sleep, Money, set to release in 2023. In his chamber music, he seeks to blend popular references with complex musical structures to create thought-provoking but less-than-serious experiences for his audiences. Schumaker has composed music for many mediums, including an intensive care unit hospital bed made by Stryker. He received an honorable mention in the American Prize competition for his song cycle, “The Best Thing Ever” for soprano and Pierrot lunaire sextet, premiered by What is Noise in March of 2016. His most recent commissions and grants have come from the Kalamazoo Artistic Development Initiative of the Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo, Boston-based Some Assembly Required, New-York-based prepared toy-piano duo Chromic, trombonist Justin Croushore, and countertenor Thomas Aláan.
Schumaker is an arts administrator, educator, and composer. He currently directs the education programs for The Gilmore Piano Festival where he manages fifteen programs that serve thousands of students, with a focus on providing piano-focused music education to students who would otherwise not have the opportunity. Over the course of his tenure, the education programming budget has grown 5x from where they started and has naturally expanded to reach more students of all ages over a larger geographic area. Schumaker started and now advises The Gilmore’s live streaming initiatives, bringing exceptional performances to accessible digital platforms with high quality audio and video.
Adam also maintains the position of visiting professor of music theory and composition at Kalamazoo College. An advocate for the integration of entrepreneurial education, Schumaker created and continues to teach the first Arts Entrepreneurship course at Kalamazoo College, and speaks regularly on the subject at colleges and music educator groups.
www.adamschumaker.com
www.facebook.com/theschumaker
Twitter: @SchumakerA
www.thegilmore.org/education