Adam Schumaker
Adam Schumaker is a composer, educator, and arts administrator. He currently directs the education programs for The Gilmore Piano Festival where he manages fifteen programs that serve thousands of students. Schumaker is also the lead of The Gilmore’s live streaming initiatives, bringing exceptional performances to accessible digital platforms with high quality audio and video.
Adam Schumaker 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 regional colleges and music educator groups.
Schumaker is an active composer, songwriter, and arranger. He seeks to blend popular references with complex musical structures to create thought-provoking but less-than-serious experiences for his audiences. He 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, the Albion College Department of Music, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs, Boston-based Some Assembly Required, New-York-based prepared toy-piano duo Chromic, trombonist Justin Croushore, and counter-tenor Thomas Aláan.
Twitter: @SchumakerA