Anthony Adams was born in London in 1947. He learnt the piano as a child but
composition only became a major interest in his early twenties after
completing a science degree at Liverpool University. From 1973 to 1979 he
studied music at UCNW Bangor with William Mathias and Jeffrey Lewis gaining
a M.Mus and leaving unfinished a PhD. After Bangor he moved to York where
he co-founded Soundpool, the precursor to York Late Music, and taught piano and
woodwind for many years while continuing to compose.
In 1980 he was commissioned to write a String Quartet with Soprano, The
Closing of Autumn, for The Radcliffe Music Award which was performed at Hull
University and in the Wigmore Hall by the Allegri String Quartet with Mary
King. Other notable performances have included Arabesque (10 instruments)
at the Bath Festival in 1989 by Lontano conducted by Odaline de la Martinez;
Crystal for trombone and percussion, premiered in York in 1989 by Barrie
Webb and Elizabeth Davis before being toured in Australia; Five Pictures (12
instruments) played at the 1988 Huddersfield Festival by the Firebird Ensemble
with Barrie Webb, conductor; Ten Pieces for Piano was given its first
performance in 1993 by Andrew Ball.
He now lives near Durham and for the last 25 years has run a music education
business in the north-east employing musicians to teach children instruments
in schools while continuing to compose.