Today we’d like to introduce you to Adam Levin.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My name is Adam Levin and I am classical guitarist from Lake Bluff, IL, a North side suburb about an hour from the city. I’m the son of a psychologist and stock broker and have a younger sister, Adriane, who is now a resident dermatologist in Boston, MA. I grew up in a household of maniacally driven and hardworking family who appreciated the arts and who identified my affinity for music early on and started me on the piano. There were some years of crossover in which I studied both classical guitar and piano, but the right hand nails that I had to grow and maintain for guitar began to hinder my progress and annoy my piano teacher. So, I left the piano for the cooler of the two instruments, the guitar. My father has been a lifelong lover the guitar and aficionado, playing much of the standard repertoire on the guitar and also serving as my first teacher.
The discipline he instilled would make most parents cringe, but it was successful. He woke my sister, Adriane and I up at 5Am in the morning to practice the guitar. When else were we going to practice? We had sports, homework, extracurricular actives, and, of course, our social lives. Believe me it wasn’t easy and there were definitely times we pleaded with our dad to let us sleep in, but it forever changed my life and made me into the musician I am today. More parents should/need to adopt these tactics. In the 21st century, we coddle our children, but the truth is parents, not children, know what’s best for their children. I’ve amalgamated the best of all of my teacher’s approaches to guitar pedagogy into my own teaching philosophy.
Later on, I attended Northwestern University where I pursued a double degree program in Psychology, Classical Guitar Performance and Pre-medical studies. I thought for the longest time I would become a physician and a touring classical guitarist, however, I quickly realized that a life in Medical school would have kept me studying and away from practicing and pursuing my art. A summer abroad in Sienna, Italy, studying with Andrés Segovia’s protégé, Oscar Ghiglia, was enough to convince me to walk the tight rope and go after a career in performance. I switched gears from Medicine to Music and never looked back. I applied to graduate school with my hero growing up, Eliot Fisk.
I moved to Boston to attend graduate school and study with international guitar virtuoso, Eliot Fisk. After graduate school, I was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to research and perform new Spanish guitar music. It was a once in a lifetime opportunity to explore Spanish culture and music. It started with one year and I received extensions for a second and third year. While living abroad, I had the unique opportunity to commission new works for the classical guitar from 30 of the most important living Spanish composers of the last four generations.
I later returned to the states in 2011 and was hired in at UMass Boston and University of Rhode Island to help lead the guitar programs. I tour regularly as a soloist and chamber musician. I’ve been working with longtime friend and music partner, William Knuth, as Duo Sonidos. We are a violin and guitar chamber music group, which is beautiful combination (www.duosonidos.com). I also collaborate with two of my guitar colleagues as the Great Necks (www.thegreatnecks.com).
I am also passionate about music advocacy work and co-direct a non-profit organization that improves the lives of young people worldwide through classical guitar education, called Kithara Project. We fund year-round guitar-education programs in Boston, Albuquerque and Mexico City. Www.kitharaproject.org.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I’ve been very fortunate throughout my entire life to have mentors, teachers and family that have helped me to cultivate my personal voice on the guitar. Music, unlike any other field, is a career created from dust, in other words, nothing. Each path is unique and personal. My path has been the result of my passion for the guitar, an undying love for music making, drive, discipline and my creative imagination. Compared to most, my pursuit of a music career has been smooth. The challenge lies in balancing practice, business, living life and rest. All of these components are critical to survival in the arts. The challenge for me, at this juncture in my career, is to balance the development of my art form with the promotion it. Neither can survive without the other.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Adam Levin, Classical Guitarist story. Tell us more about the business.
I am principally a performer, but I have dedicated the last decade to teaching the next generation of guitarists at both University of Rhode Island and University of Massachusetts Boston and through my non-profit organization, Kithara Project. I specialize in classical guitar performance and pedagogy, however, that’s a bit of a misnomer because classical guitar is merely a kind of guitar you play. The music one performs is really cosmopolitan in nature, coming from around the globe. That’s the beauty of the guitar, its universality. There is not a place on the planet whose culture isn’t in some way tied to the guitar.
I have been particularly fascinated by the Spanish sound. The classical guitar has deep roots in Spanish folklore and history. As a child, I grew up playing Spanish music from the 15th century to the early 20th century, but my knowledge of what came afterward stopped there. With a curiosity of what happened next, I traveled to Spain to learn about the culture, imbibe the Spanish sound, and explore the music of the late 20th and early 21st Centuries. I am particularly proud of having navigated Spain as a foreigner, met all the important compositional figures, and commissioned 30 of them to write me virtuoso works for solo classical guitar.
What sets me apart from my colleagues is that I have pursued a multi-dimensional career that includes a worldwide touring career, a recording artist career, a pedagogical career, and a music advocacy career. It is difficult to maintain all of these careers at once, but the result has invigorated me even more to pursue them all at once!
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I am of the mind that you have to be damn good at what you do, but you also have to work maniacally to make it happen. Even then, there is the role of luck in a career. You have to be in the right place at the right time. My new Spanish music project, the role my mentors have played, the connections I’ve made, some of these opportunities afforded me were just simple luck.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.adamlevinguitar.com
- Email: adam.4.levin@gmail.com
- Other: Www.duosonidos.com, www.kitharaproject.org, www.thegreatnecks.com
Image Credit:
Geraldine Petrovic, Bogdan Urma Cyrus Ndolo
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