Brief Bio

Robert Train Adams was born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area. He started piano lessons at age 4-1/2 but retired after several weeks. At the more mature age of 5, he resumed lessons, later also studying violin, oboe and organ.

Eventually Bob received A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in music from the University of California Berkeley, also studying composition at the conservatories in Paris and Amsterdam with Tony Aubin and Ton de Leeuw.

In 2003 Bob retired from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth after a 25-year career as a music professor and department head, having also served universities in California, Pennsylvania and Alabama. In addition to teaching, Bob has been active in the church music ministry as organist and choir director (At the age of 13, he started his first organist position on the condition that he take organ lessons!). Bob continues to be active as a composer, with many instrumental, choral and solo pieces.

In addition to his compositional activities, Dr. Adams is Minister of Music at Saint Stephen's Episcopal Church in Orinda, California, having previously service as Director of Music and Organist at John Knox Presbyterian Church in Dublin, California (2005-2007). He directs the St. Stephens Choir, the Westminster Chimes handbell ensemble, and two children's choirs. Bob also works as freelance organist, choir director, and keyboardist, and serves as Rehearsal and Concert Accompanist and Assistant Conductor of the San Francisco Lyric Chorus. Other recent concert accompaniments include WomenSing, University of California's University Chorus and Chamber Singers, and Rossmoor and Moraga Valley Community Choruses. He is former organist of Lafayette-Orinda Presbyterian Church (2003-2005).

Bob and his wife Marianne have three adult children, Sean, Delara and Jeremy, and two grandchildren, Kirsten and Darren. When not making music, Bob is often found at the golf course trying to figure out how not to hit the ball into the woods, the weeds, the sand, the lake, the cars driving by on the road . . .

Thoughts on Music Composition

Music is an essential part of human society. Sometimes it is written down, then performed. At other times it is improvised, or learned by rote from master teachers. Regardless of its genesis, if it moves performers and listeners to be better than they were, it's good music.

Although much of my music has been written for church settings, I've gotten a lot of satisfaction (and so have my performers...and at least some of my listeners!) from the works I've written for other settings. I like it best when performers take my music and make it their own, going beyond just thinking about what the composer wants. Heck, I do that in my own performing--even with my own music. That tempo marking that seemed perfect in the studio doesn't work in the performance venue. Articulation, dynamics, phrasing--no matter how detailed these and other parameters are, they need performers to make them real, performers with the musical intelligence to play the spaces between the notes as much as the written symbols themselves. I encourage you to visit Music to my Ears to take part in the discussion, adding your own voice and thoughts on music composition.

Thoughts on Music Ministry . . .

Music is an essential part of worship. We find many references to music throughout scripture. The psalms, in particular, have long functioned as a hymn book for people of faith. I particularly appreciate the image of making a joyful noise to God (the organist part of me likes the idea of just putting on all the stops and letting go!). Whether our voices are professional or untrained, whether we read music or not, whether we are trained or self-taught on an instrument, we should make our joyful noises, offering our best to God.

Those who serve in the music ministry must function as cantors, strengthening and enabling the people's song. This concept, set forth and explored by Paul Westermeyer in The Church Musician, is important for both professional and volunteer musicians, for singers as well as instrumentalists. We must ultimately all be amateurs: enthusiastic lovers of music, and musical lovers of God.

Even though instruments, vocal solos and choral anthems are presented to the listening congregation, that presentation and the congregation?s active listening and response in worship are a sacramental offering to God, expressing both the transcendence and the presence of God among us.