Samuel Adler

Samuel Adler was born in Mannheim, Germany in 1928, and came to the United States in 1939. He holds a B.M. from Boston University, an M.A. from Harvard University and four honorary doctorates from other institutions. During his tenure in the U.S. Army, he founded and conducted the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra and because of the orchestra's great psychological and musical impact on the European cultural scene, he was awarded the Army's Medal of Honor. Samuel Adler has composed over 400 works in all media, and has published three books: "Choral Conducting (1985)", "Sight-Singing" (1997) and "The Study of Orchestration" (1989). From 1957-1966, he was professor of composition at North Texas State University. From 1966-1994 he was professor of composition at the Eastman School of Music.

More recently he has taught at Ithaca College, The University of Cincinnati, and Indiana University, and is currently on the faculty of the Juilliard School in New York. He has received numerous awards and grants including the Deems Taylor Award, Composer of the Year (from the MTNA and the AGO), National Endowment for the Arts grants, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the Eisenhart Award for distinguished teaching from the Eastman School.

His works have been performed by major symphonic , choral and chamber organizations in the United States, South America, Europe, Asia and Israel including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Detroit Symphony as well as the orchestras of Kansas City, San Antonio, Fort Worth, New Orleans, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Los Angeles, and others.

His compositions have been recorded on RCA, Vanguard, CRI, Lyrichord, Mark, Turnabout, Gasparo, and Golden Crest Records. The choral group Gloriae Dei Cantores has recently recorded several of his Psalm settings on GDCD025 "Make His Praise Glorious" and GDCD027 "By the Rivers of Babylon".