Adam Gorb

Biography

Adam Gorb (b. 12 March 1958, Cardiff, Wales) is a British composer and educator.

Dr. Gorb started composing at the age of ten. At fifteen he wrote a set of piano pieces –- A Pianist’s Alphabet –- of which a selection was performed on BBC Radio 3. In 1977 he went to Cambridge University to study music, where his teachers included Hugh Wood and Robin Holloway. After graduating in 1980 he divided his time between composition and working as a musician in the theatre. In 1987 he started studying privately with Paul Patterson, and then, from 1991 at the Royal Academy of Music where he gained a MMus degree and graduated with the highest honours, including the Principal’s Prize in 1993. He has a Ph.D. in composition from the University of Birmingham and has taught at universities in the United States, Canada, Japan and many European countries.

Gorb's compositions include orchestral, ensemble, chamber, solo and choral works, and have been performed, broadcast and recorded world-wide. In 1994, his composition Metropolis for wind band (1992) was award the Walter Beeler Memorial Prize. In the UK his compositions, of every ability level, have had performances at contemporary music festivals in Huddersfield, Cheltenham, Hampstead and Highgate, Spitalfields and Canterbury, and he has had concerts entirely devoted to his music in the UK, the U.S. and Canada. His second opera The Path to Heaven with an accompanying wind ensemble was premiered in the UK in 2018 with productions in the U.S.in 2019 and 2020.

Adam Gorb has been a Visiting Lecturer in Composition at universities and conservatoires in the U.S., Canada, Beijing, Daejeon, Tokyo, Vienna, The Hague, Brussels, Vilnius, Weimar, Verona and Istanbul. He is Head of School of Composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester.

Works for Winds

Adaptable Music

A Little Tango Music (Flex instrumentation) (2007/2020)

All Wind Works

Adrenaline City (2006)
African Samba (2006)
Ascent (1996/2004)
Awayday (1996)
Awayday (arr. Wintringham) (1999/2015)
Battle Symphony (1999)
Bells Across the Atlantic (2013)
Bermuda Triangle (1994)
Bohemian Revelry (2013)
Bohemian Revelry: For Chamber Ensemble (2013/2021)
Bohemian Revelry (tr. Holland) (2013/2017)
Bridgewater Breeze (1996)
Candlelight Procession (2001)
Concerto for Violin, Viola and Wind Ensemble (2022)
Dances from Crete (2003)
Downtown Diversions (2000)
Eine Kleine Walzermusik (2009)
Eine Kleine Yiddishe Ragmusik (2003)
Elements (1998)
Euphonium Concerto 1997
Farewell (2008)
French Dances Revisited (2004)
A Little Salsa Music
A Little Tango Music (2007)
Metropolis (1992)
Midnight in Buenos Aires (2007)
Out of the Darkness (2023)
Parade of the Wooden Warriors (1999)
Pikes Peak (2017)
Repercussions (2011)
Scenes from an English Landscape
Scenes from Bruegel (1994)
Suite for Winds (1993)
Summer Dances (2012)
Sunrise and Safari (2006)
Symphony No. 1 in C (2000)
Three Way Suite
Towards Nirvana (2002)
Tranquility (2009)
Viderunt Omnes (2014)
Yiddish Dances (1997)
Yiddish Dances (Chamber) (1997/2020)

Resources

Adam Gorb, personal correspondence, December 2020
Adam Gorb website
Amundson, Bethany. "Bohemian Revelry." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 12, Compiled and edited by Andrew Trachsel, 745-751. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2021.
Berz, William. The British Are Coming Rutgers Music Education Newsletter (Spring 2001).
"Gorb, Adam." G&M Brand Publications. Web. Accessed 18 February 2021
Kish, David. "Transquility." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 9, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 458-463. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2013.
Miles, Richard B. 2000. Teaching Music Through Performance in Band. Volume 3. Chicago: GIA Publications. pp. 632.
Mills, Alan W. "Bells Across the Atlantic." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 499-510. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.
Reynish, Timothy. Adam Gorb
Salzman, Timothy, editor. (2012) A Composer's Insight. Volume 5. Galesville, Md.: Meredith Music Publications. pp. 85–116.