composer — David Carlton Adams

"Play Nice" (2023)

Performed by Wet Ink Ensemble with the composer. Recorded live at its premier at the Peabody Institute, June 28, 2023.

My three year old is teaching me all kinds of things: it’s good to really feel our feelings; we can always be growing; and notably, curiosity, excitement, and a willingness to experiment - even if it means allowing for mistakes - create ideal conditions for learning. How can we apply these lessons in our field? What conditions bring about a spirit of free play in expert performers? With these lessons and questions in mind, I present this piece!

Erin Lesser, flutes
Alex Mincek, tenor sax
Ian Antonio, percussion
Sam Pluta, electronics
David Adams, electronics

Audio engineering by Alejandro Quiles
Video taken by Sally Hyun and Danni Song, edited by David Adams

"three or four (of many)" (2022)

Performed by JACK quartet. Recorded live at its premier at New Music on the Point in scenic Lake Dunmore, VT, June 8, 2022.

This piece explores the intersection of texture, just intonation, and renaissance polyphony. Ideas emerge, find expression, are subsumed, and disappear. Oh, and there’s math.

Chris Otto and Austin Wulliman, violins
John Pickford Richards, viola
Jay Campbell, cello

Audio engineering by Brian Riordan
Video by Emmanuel Berrido
Post production by David Adams and Lyndon Hughes

"for Filene" (2022)

Percussion quartet (non-specific instrumentation)

This piece was inspired by a stuffed sloth named Filene, the mascot of the Sō Percussion Summer Institute where the piece came into being. Filene represents a willingness to trust mentors and go with it… sort of in the “wax on, wax off” tradition. This piece employs manipulated photos of a Princeton dorm room and a sort of graphic score - erasure hybrid, unveiling a groove in quadruple counterpoint. The title in the video is a description, not the title - the piece is just: for Filene.

Premiered by Alex Braud, Adam Clifton, Liz Fetzer, and Graham Viegut at Sō Percussion Summer Institute on July 23, 2022 at Taplin Auditorium at Princeton University.

Video by Four/Ten Media

This whole experience was wild and wonderful. I got to be the composition assistant to Andrea Mazzariello, who is a wonderful composer, professor, and human being. I performed a Sudoku-inspired piece by Jason Treuting, and then performed along with Beth Meyers and Sō on “Stay On It” by Julius Eastman. I met a bunch of badasses, and we had a ball together. Can’t blurb how cool this was.

Let me know if you’d like to take a look at the score, or if there’s anything I can do for you.

annunciation (2021)

2 opera scenes
Libretto and story by Olivia Ephraim Pepper

SoJung Lim

Lily, a young woman who has known trauma

Joshua Scheid

The Stranger, a mysterious figure, summoned by Lily

Mira Huang, Anna Carolina Peleas, and Maddi Ohrbach

Vox Angeli, lesser angels, empathetic, and growing increasingly alarmed

Written with the guidance of Tony Arnold and Oscar Bettison.
Video (directed by Garnett Bruce) is forthcoming.

mixed by David C. Adams and Lyndon Hughes
mastered by David Sexton

composed by David Carlton Adams

"On the Thin Ice of Modern Life" (2021)

Performed by the Talea Ensemble, conducted by Jim Baker. Recorded live at its premier in Griswold Hall at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, MD, Saturday, October 30, 2021.

Barry Crawford - flute, bass flute, and alto flute
Rane Moore - clarinet, bass clarinet
Chris Gross - cello

Conducted by Jim Baker

This concert was part of the celebration of 150 years of composition at Peabody.

The Talea Ensemble’s fall 2021 residency at the Peabody Institute
received support from a 2020 Johns Hopkins Catalyst Award, awarded to Felipe Lara.

"tear" (2022)

for flute, viola, and harp

Premiered by the Mostly Modern Ensemble:
Elma Meijer, flute
Sabien Canton, harp
Michelle Pritchard, viola
Robert Paterson, conductor

MOSTLY MODERN FESTIVAL In Partnership with Muziekschool Zeeland Zeeuwse Concert Zaal Middelburg, ZE (The Netherlands) 4/30/2022

Audio and Video by Ronald Baljeu and staff at Mostly Modern Festival | The Netherlands

Anxiety & Discovery (2021)

Noise. Pedals. Good times.

This piece represents the first performance of a new noisy composer collective. name TBD. Proposed names include “Occam’s Beard” and “PAC (Peabody Axe Crew).”

This work also signifies a new degree of integration between what have thus far been somewhat separate facets of my musical life: “rock” and “classical.”

Performed at Peabody by:

Mike Begay, electric guitar
Sam Kohler, electric bass
David C. Adams, electric guitar

composed by David Carlton Adams

David Carlton Adams · what did it feel like (2020) for violin and voice

what did it feel like (2020)

Recorded in isolation. Nuff said.

Emma Rocheleau, soprano; Hayley Camp, violin

Text by Olivia Pepper
Composed and mixed by David C. Adams

a visit from the warmth (2020)

Icy strings. Warm guitar. Feels.

Christabel Lin, violins
Karoline “Karli” Leal, viola
Shawn Sanders, cello

mixed by Lyndon Hughes

string quartet and electronics electric guitar composition

Click for video
video editing by Tom Echols

some operatic etudes

Recorded piecemeal at a quarantine near you.

loneliness is a wasp gall:
Sierra Leslie, soprano; Ashton Phillip Sady, horn; Chih-Chun Wang, violin; Ting-An Wei, viola; Kyle Victor, cello;

what was/did:
Emma Rocheleau, soprano; Erica D’Ancona, soprano; Gayssie Lugo, mezzo-soprano; Sophia Bracken, clarinet; Simon Yang, horn; Hayley Camp and Felix Shen, violins; William Church, viola; John Sample, cello; Leonard Kang, bass

Texts by Olivia Pepper
Composed and mixed by David C. Adams

Concerto for Horn & Chamber Orchestra (2018) Lament & variations

Emerging from accessible idioms and some early modernist stylings, this piece cracks open the door, inviting broad audiences to explore more contemporary sounds.

Michael Mikulka, horn
Nicholas Perry Clark, conductor
Density512 Orchestra

Premiered 10/28/18 in Bates Recital Hall at the Butler School of Music, University of Texas in Austin, TX.

Adams - Horn Concerto (2018) (excerpts)

Excerpts from David Carlton Adams's Concerto for Horn & Chamber Orchestra (2018) feat. soloist Dr. Michael Mikulka, and Nicholas Perry Clark conducting the Density512 Orchestra. Premiered 10/28/18 in Bates Recital Hall at the Butler School of Music, University of Texas in Austin, TX.

Songs of Love & Loss

Songs of Love & Loss (2014)
I. Not with a club
II. The healed heart shows its shallow scar
III. Proud of my broken heart

A short song cycle consisting of three poems by Emily Dickinson set to music over the course of studying with three different composition teachers. Each song is in its own musical language, though they are connected both by the emotions conveyed through the words, and through some subtle similarities in the handling of the musical and poetic materials. I wrote this under the tutelage of Donald Grantham. Expertly sung by Page Stephens, accompanied masterfully by Andrew Boss, who also happens to be an excellent composer.

Text by Emily Dickinson

Page Stephens, mezzo-soprano
Andy Boss, piano

American Dances for sax quartet (2014)

i. blues
ii. funk

Andy Wilds, soprano sax; Ben Kessler, alto sax; Charlie Chadwell, tenor sax; Nathan Mertens, bari sax

Hit me up for score inquiries:

davidcarltonadams (a) gmail.com

presenter